Red clouds over Ame
by mtziggorot
Summary: Edited and re uploaded my story, no they where NOT deleted.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This idea has been in my head for quite some time so I decided to type it out. Story will take place at start of Shippūden era so time frame for certain events might not match up but this is fiction just go with it. This is my favorite couple in the Narutoverse so I had to do a story for them even if it sucks it sounded decent in my head.  
Ages: Naruto:19 Konan:32 Naruto's sister:15 all other ages are the same as canon

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Naruto franchise.

Naruto brushed the rain out of his hair and looked down at the grey ring adorning his right thumb bearing the kanji for zero; he then looked out over 'his' village. It was foolish to call it his village for he knew Konan made every decision regarding it and he was just a figurehead, the rain village's 'god' that was how it had been ever since she had found him those thirteen years ago when he had washed out of the sewer drain and floated downriver when he was six years old, only to be fished out by the Angel of the Rain Village, one glimpse at his purple eyes that had appeared when he hit his head and suddenly his savior had a purpose for him, at first he was skeptical, but she did save him, and she was working toward peace, what nobler goal was there than that? The one thing he didn't like at first was the moniker he had to take, Pein, but apparently her dead friend had the same eyes and abilities he did and she needed him to replace the former Pein as the leader of the rain village as well as the leader of the criminal organization they were running. Also it didn't take long for the name Pein to grow on him; often he used it instead of his real name when talking to Konan.

Once again he brushed the rain out of his short red hair, the red hair he remembered, it was a gift from his mother if he remembered correctly, though he didn't remember much about his parents, just that they were kind people, at least in the few memories he had been able to remember it always seemed that way, his mother had vibrant red hair, and they were both always smiling at him, but there was no point in remembering them anyway he was with his Angel now and they were working toward peace what better goal was there for a god and his angel?

Meanwhile standing at the doorway watching Pein as he sat out in the rain while his six paths where each laying on different beds Konan suppressed a sigh while she watched him and silently wondered what he was thinking about, she hoped it was something other than her, but somehow she doubted it, ever since she first fished the young rinnegan user out of that lake all those years ago and told him that the rains old god sent him to become the new one. Ever since that day he had become completely devoted to her, his Angel. His fanatical devotion was quite pleasing at first, considering that the only reason she was even in a position to pull him from that river was because she was fleeing from the Rain village after Nagato had died due to developing the **demonic statue of the outer path**, and she did not want to be there went she lost power in both the Rain village and Akatsuki she fled. Only to come across another rinnegan user, once she found him she did her best to get him to take Nagato's place in both the village and organization she first tried to teach Naruto the **six paths jutsu** figuring as long as the body Pein had used to attend meeting with Akatsuki showed up then they would believe he was still alive, which thankfully they did, fooling top class shinobi was no easy feat and she was playing with fire as it was, but what choice did she have she had to maintain her friends dream. It was so much more difficult to do back when they were deceiving them, but it could be summed up in just a few short words. She told him what to say and he did so. He learned quickly how to use his gifted eyes and soon improved so much that she was no longer stronger than he was, in fact she doubted she would provide a challenge in battle to him at all as he was now, but he still looked to her for direction, it was strange really to have someone so powerful at your beck and call willing to do anything for you, but what should she of expected? After all she was everything to him, when she first found him she was a mother for him replacing the one he lost, than she was his teacher guiding him through the challenges of becoming a skilled shinobi and leader, than she became a friend, listening to the woes he felt and sharing her own bonding to the young man as he grew explaining new things to him and listening and being there when he stumbled and fell only to pick him back up again. Yes she was his friend, she then looked at the boy again and looked away, she was his only friend as she didn't know of anyone else he had other than her, and that made her remorseful considering it was her doing, the fact that he was like this was all on her, but she had her reasons, she had to continue Yahiko and Nagato's dream of peace, plus with a healthy rinnegan user, instead of a crippled one it made it very possible for Madara's life to finally come to an end as well. That was a must for there could never be peace with a man like that around. As much as she may loathe the fact that she turned Naruto into Pein it was for the greater good, so that they could all live in peace. She sighed and entered the room, if he heard her he gave no indication as he continued to sit on the balcony overlooking the village.

"Sasori and Deidera have caught the three tails; it's time to seal it." She informed him

"Very well when shall we begin?" he asked as he used the god realm to open its eyes and get off the bed it was currently lying on, and prepared it to perform jutsu.

"In just a minute, while we are sealing the three tails ask about the status of recovering Orochimaru's ring, it would be an asset to retrieve it soon it will make the sealing process take far less time and it will allow us to add another member to our group." She told Naruto as she put a hand on his shoulder.

Naruto for his part enjoyed the contact, Konan was always warm, while it was often cold in the rain village but she never seemed to be cold and it was something he enjoyed greatly whenever he got the chance to. Not that his face ever changed from his perfectly stoic expression he had practiced since he was six years old no expression shows weakness and weakness could get you killed he would always be strong for his angel.

Soon Naruto stood and moved his body out of the rain so he wouldn't get sick while he was elsewhere. He then made the god realm make the Ram sign and the world around him blurred.

**Astral projection jutsu**

Soon he was in an unfamiliar area with a see through projection of Konan, and three other Akatsuki members so far, an astral projection of Zetsu, while there were solid real forms of both Sasori and Deidera. The latter two had with them a giant three tailed turtle that was incapacitated. With that Pein moved into a wide open area and started making hand signs.

Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram  
**Summoning: Demonic statue of the Outer Path**

The ground rumbled and out of it emerged a giant humanoid statue with nine eyes, seven of the eyes being closed, at that moment another team of Akatsuki arrived Kakuzu and Hidan, upon seeing the statue had their projections jumped onto their appropriate finger and waited for the sealing of the three tails to being, all the while Hidan was complaining loudly to his partner who was telling him to be quiet. The foul mouth on Hidan, Konan thought to herself was the first time Naruto had ever encountered such language but she was very thankful that it didn't take with the young boy, instead growing to be a proper talking young man. Shortly the group was joined by Itachi and Kisame's projections, with Kisame saying they were busy with information gathering as the reason why they where late.

"Very well let us begin." Naruto said as he began making hand seals while the others put their hands in the ram sign.

Tiger → Snake → Rat → Ox → Dog → Ram  
**Sealing jutsu: Nine Phantom Dragons**

With that the three day process of draining the three tails had begun. Naruto observed the others talking in hushed voices to each other for quite awhile, he sometimes wondered what they talked about but shrugged it off as unimportant as long as they got their jobs done and answered his questions and call when asked he didn't really care, speaking of questions.

"What is our status on recovering Orochimaru's ring?" Pein questioned in a flat monotone.

"We are still having trouble locating it, _it seems the snake is slicker than we thought also we haven't really given it much thought."_ Zetsu informed him in his strange double speak voice.

"Very well Zetsu I want your main focus to be on locating that ring, Sasori do you know where it could be?" Pein questioned the spy master of the Akatsuki.

"I will check around Leader." Sasori droned out from the interior of his puppet armor. Naruto didn't give an answer, he assumed Sasori to be smart enough to know that was what he should do, the cavern they were performing the sealing in settle into silence for a few minutes before the mummers started back up amongst most of the members with only Itachi and himself remaining silent.

Now Konan who was standing between Deidera and Zetsu and since she wasn't the leader of the organization was often targeted for conversation to pass the time. For whatever reason most of the members didn't want to talk to Naruto, or Pein as they all knew him, probably saw him as a kill joy but they rarely had reservations about talking to her, it was funny considering that Naruto was taking orders from her, but who was she to complain. The only problem with that was that Deidera was one of the most talkative members of the Akatsuki besides Hidan, and he liked to make inappropriate comments often revolving around her relationship with her partner. It was no secret to her that the rest of the Akatsuki thought of them as lovers, nor was it an improbable conclusion to draw, the two of them where always together, and neither of them showed any interest in anyone else, at least that she knew of, but it was hard to picture Pein going around hitting on women in the streets with the way his demeanor had become over the years but he had been a teenage boy, in fact at nineteen he still was a teenager so it was always a possibility, although a slim one. Maybe she really didn't know everything about him, after all he didn't know everything about her, most of everything but not all. It was a long three days for the Akatsuki members; they really needed to retrieve the tenth ring so they could speed this process up, but they sealed the three tails, and another eye on the statue opened up.

"Well that's that, three down six to go." Stated Kisame rather confidently he knew what was next.

"Yes Kisame, you and Itachi will be retrieving the four tails, be careful its jinchuriki is known as Roshi of the lava style for a reason." Pein informed Kisame as the Akatsuki gradually faded away.

Once they were back in the room Naruto moved to look out the balcony again to ensure he had not missed anything in his absents, while the god realm returned to the bed it had previously occupied. Once he was satisfied he had not missed anything he turned around, only to find Konan standing there waiting to talk to him.

"Is everything alright Pein?" she asked, just like she always does whenever he checks the rain for intruder.

"No everything is fine. Konan you should get some rest your low on chakra and you look tired as well." Naruto stated flatly, but he was concerned about her health, what would happen if she wasn't here with him, he would have shuddered at the thought.

"Okay I will, thank you, wake me if anything happens out here." she stated giving him a smile, as she made her way out of his 'storage' room and toward her own quarters. He almost broke into a smile himself when she smiled at him, it always made him feel better about whatever was going on at the time, the only time he ever saw Konan smile was when the two of them were alone and he was using only the outer realm, his original body, she wouldn't smile at, or call any of the other realms Naruto. Pushing his overly complex relationship with Konan aside he began working on his realms once again, each realm being able to use one of the rinnegan's abilities was very helpful but currently he was trying to get each realm to use a type of nature transformation in addition to the rinnegan ability, so far he had been able to infuse the demon realm with lighting style, and the human realm with earth. Currently he was trying to infuse water style into the hell realm.

**Three days later**

The god realm was currently walking through the halls; just moments ago Pein had been told that Orochimaru had been found, so now it was time to deal with the wayward Sannin and Akatsuki member. He suddenly came to a stop after detecting a sinister presence.

"What are you doing here?" Pein asked as he turned to face the intruder, not that he expected an attack from him, no he was too valuable an asset for the man to even consider it at the moment.

"Sharp as ever I see, I heard you all just located Orochimaru's ring." The masked man that claimed to be Madara said.

"And if we have?" the god realm questioned

"I want it, it's time for me to take a more active role in the Akatsuki." The masked man stated.

"Who will be your partner than if you join the only one with a partner is Zetsu." Pein stated in a matter of fact tone.

"I talked to Zetsu, he is willing to give his ring to someone else and function as a spy full time without interruptions." The masked man told him.

"I will think it over." He stated dismissing the masked man much to the man's ire and began to walk away to meet with Zetsu.

Arriving in the main room Pein was greeted to the sight of Sasori and Zetsu both in the room with Konan standing a little ways apart from them. Pein walked in and stood in the middle of the room, Konan immediately moved to stand by his side while Sasori and Zetsu both stood in front of him but a decent distance apart from one another.

"What have the two of you learned?" Pein questioned the two spies of the Akatsuki.

"Orochimaru is currently hiding in the land of rivers in a base he set up there; he has Sasuke Uchiha and Kabuto Yakushi with him." Sasori informed.

"Very well, Sasori, I want you and Deidera to stay here till morning and await new orders, your dismissed." Pein informed the great puppeteer. Once that was done and he exited the room he turned to Zetsu, and spoke.

"I heard you were willing to give up your ring and become a full time spy, is this true?" Pein asked the plant like Akatsuki member with some skepticism.

"Yes it is. _It would be better if we had five teams instead of four."_ Zetsu informed him.

"Very well, I will tell you when we find a suitable person to give your ring to in the meantime continue with your original assignment of tracking the five tails." Pein told the spy.

Once Zetsu left both the god path and Konan started making their way upstairs in silence words were not needed between the two, and once they made it to the entrance of Pein's storage room he unlocked it and they went in to discuss the matters that had just transpired.

"Madara came he told me he was ready to join Akatsuki and wants Zetsu to become a full time spy and wants to be partnered with someone else." Pein informed his angel.

Konan's face held slight shock before she started to contemplate their next move. "You and I will go and retrieve Orochimaru's ring ourselves, if Madara wants to join fine we will let him, but we will make Deidera his partner and we will get Sasori a new one, have anyone in mind?" she ask Pein.

"Yes how about Hiruko, I have had my eye on him for some time. He managed to thwart an assassination attempt by the Sannin many years ago, he also has developed a technique that allows him to steal kekkei genki from other shinobi, but he can only absorb five of them if our intelligence is correct and so far he has four, at least he had four last I knew." Pein informed Konan of his suggestion.

"Are you sure bringing him around you and Itachi would be wise than if he steals kekkei genki?" she asked the god of the rain.

"It will be irrelevant by then, because I planned on capturing Sasuke and offering him as a trade to Hiruko for him joining our ranks." Pein informed Konan of his idea.

"Itachi won't like it, but it may be the best course of action. Okay that's what we will do then" She stated matter of fact as she fought off a smile at the progress the young rinnegan user had made in terms of leadership and decision making.

"Very well I will give Deidera and Sasori the order to start searching for Hiruko, while we prepare ourselves for Orochimaru." Pein confirmed her orders as he turned and exited the room to seek out the artists of the Akatsuki and give them their task.

Konan was upstairs packing and thinking about their current situation with Madara, she wondered if it would be too soon to strike him yet, or if they could kill him now, Naruto had become strong, probably stronger than Nagato was she was hoping they wouldn't have to bide their time for too much longer, she couldn't stand Madara. Finishing her packing and sealing it into her scrolls that then melded to her body thanks to her paper techniques she pulled on her Akatsuki cloak and walked over to Naruto's room hoping that he was ready to leave now, as she had handled all the packing of gear and he just needed to get his different bodies ready. When she arrived she was greeted to the sight of Naruto and all six of his paths standing there ready to go, each had their headbands and cloaks on as well as their sedge hats with the concealing strips placed on their heads. He gave a curt nod when he saw her enter and moved forward.

"Are we ready to go?" Naruto asked the blue haired woman in front of him.

"Yes Pein." She said placing her own hat on her head and turning around to head out. She didn't see it under the hat he had now donned but Naruto gave a slight frown, he asked that question, not the god realm, were his lines becoming so blurred he couldn't separate himself from his persona anymore? But without thinking on it anymore he followed her out with the outer realm and the animal realm, both traveling toward the land of rivers to confront and kill their old comrade Orochimaru. They moved in relative silence for a short while until Konan asked an unusual question of Naruto.

"Pein what do you remember of your life before I found you?" Konan questioned mainly because she found it unusual that they had never talked about it before, but considering the boy was so young and was mostly in shock when she found him she didn't think it would be a good idea to bring up his past.

Naruto took a second to think it through before he responded to his teammate. "I don't remember where I lived, but I remember a kind old man, I think he was my grandfather, and my mother she had red hair just like mine, and my father was tall, and both of them where always smiling and seemed happy." He paused and gave it more thought trying to drudge up long forgotten memories. "I was playing in the park and wandered off while the babysitter was watching me, I feel into a sewer drain and hit my head, the next time I woke up I was looking up at you." He explained to Konan after that it seemed Konan was more comfortable talking with him again, whatever had her ruffled or been the cause of her agitation forgotten for the moment as they made their way toward Orochimaru.

**Land of rivers secret base **

Looking at the base in front of him Naruto wondered how much of a challenge Orochimaru would pose to him, most combat he had since he killed the three tails jinchuriki wasn't to a very high level. But then again he wasn't risking hunting and killing another jinchuriki it had taken the three-tails quite a while to reform itself and that really set them back, also it made Konan upset with him, and that was one thing he couldn't stand. Suddenly he was pulled from his thoughts as a tree made of paper formed around the two paths of pain and his angel. He looked over at Konan for an explanation.

"Don't use your main body unless you have to, against someone like Orochimaru it would be too dangerous." Konan inform and he nodded his head and proceeded to leave the confines of the tree with the Animal realm and enter Orochimaru's hideout. Clapping its hands together it summoned the giant snake tailed chameleon and proceeded to climb inside of it and turn invisible and began its search of the hideout. It didn't take long to locate where they were, the hideout seemed to be one giant dojo, with a very high ceiling, and lots of space to practice techniques. With his summon invisible on the ceiling Pein observed the proceedings with mild curiosity. He saw Sauske turn and leave the area, once Naruto could no longer sense him in the hideout made his move, the mouth of the summon opened and he jumped to the floor discarding his hat along the way.

"Hello Orochimaru it has been awhile." Pein stated seeing the confused look on Orochimaru's face disappear once his eyes locked with his own purple rippled eyes.

"Kukukukukuku, so I'm worthy of the attention of the leader himself, I must say I'm flattered." He stated all the while feeling the nervousness building inside of him, Orochimaru knew he could school most the cloak wearing freak show that called themselves Akatsuki, but he never knew how strong the leader was and he was nervous about engaging him in a fight, hopefully he could find a way to escape soon.

The animal realm slammed its hands together and two puffs of smoke appeared on either side of it indicating the arrival of two other realms, the hungry ghost realm and the demon realm. Both wearing their Akatsuki cloaks and slashed rain village headbands.

"Shall we begin?" the three different realms all asked at the same time.

**With Konan**

Konan meanwhile saw their barging chip exit the hideout and make it appear as though he was heading toward town, so she decided it was time to grab him as well. Making a pair of paper clones she moved them around to attack the Uchiha teenager. Swirling paper above her head for a moment she created her jutsu and fired.

**Paper chakram **

The Uchiha narrowly avoided getting sliced to ribbons by it but the surprise attack did cause some damage as he turned to glare at whoever attacked him.

"Sorry boy you're coming with me." Konan stated

"I don't think so you're messing with an elite Uchiha" Sasuke said as he activated his sharingan.

.

.

.

A/N: So yes Konan is manipulating Naruto somewhat, and Naruto's parents are alive and Naruto didn't lead a terrible life.

So anyways I love this couple and wanted to try and write a story for them please enjoy, read and review.

GOD BLESS


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Naruto franchise.

Orochimaru leaped away and launched snakes from his hands once again, he was quickly growing frustrated with the battle that was progressing, he had so far been forced to shed his body twice due to the damage that the leader of the Akatsuki had been able to inflict upon him, and had also been forced to use his **gathering of snakes** technique when the three bodies the Akatsuki was fighting from had produced strange black blades from the sleeves of their cloaks and managed to bisect him once, on the plus side his grass long sword was the superior blade as he could break the Akatsuki's blades with it, but they somehow were able to produce more of them. This wasn't good this battle was speeding up his body rejecting him, also they were certainly causing enough commotion to be heard so it begged the question, where was his backup? Suddenly more attacks came at the snake Sannin as he began twisting and weaving his body around the rinnegan user's barrage of bladed attacks, if there was one thing he was sure of the three people he was fighting certainly kept him on his toes.

Pein attacked with both the demon realm and the animal realm once again all the while keeping the hungry ghost realm close enough to absorb the former Akatsuki's ninjutsu when needed, he did discover however that he couldn't absorb the **Strike shadow snakes** jutsu that Orochimaru used, but he knew that there was little threat the snakes could pose to him since none of his realms could be poisoned by the snakes or the grass long sword, but maybe he should have summoned a different realm other than the hungry ghost realm to deal with the snake Sannin, but he still had a lot he could do before he needed an additional body. It was time to step up his game. With that the animal realm prepared to attack with his blade again as the demon realm made hand signs.

Boar-Ram-Snake-Horse-Dragon  
**Lighting style: Earth flash**

Orochimaru managed to avoid the lightning attack, and it was a good thing he did as once he dodged the lightning fired from the palm of the demon realm's hand it tore through the wall he had been standing on moments ago thankfully they where underground, so the attack quickly was absorbed into the wall, but the structure they were in suffered, it wouldn't last much longer, but during the demon realm's attack, Orochimaru seemed to have forgotten the animal realm as it was suddenly upon him and buried it's chakra disruption blade deep into his shoulder, Orochimaru suddenly felt his chakra go haywire and tried to use his ** body shedding **technique only to find he couldn't, as he felt two of the Akatsuki leader's eyes open within his mind, and a barrage of attacks jab into him. When he finally came to his senses he noticed that he had several more of those black blades sticking out of his body and he could no longer move.

"Where is your ring?" asked Pein to his downed opponent.

"Kukukukukuku what ring could you possibly be talking about? I don't remember any ring." Orochimaru sarcastically replied to the rinnegan user.

"Fine we will do this the hard way." The Akatsuki leader announced as the animal realm clapped its hands together and summoned to them another realm, the human realm, that realm that moved to Orochimaru, ignoring his words now and touched his head, and began extracting information.

**Soul removal **

Once Pein completed the soul removal the snake Sannin died, and after assimilating all the new knowledge he gained from Orochimaru, Naruto seeing his mission complete was about to slam his hands together and summon the fours realms, hungry ghost, animal, demon, and human, back to his location, but as he was looking down at the dead traitor he decided that Kakuzu would probably want the rather large bounty the snake would bring, so he then decided to used the demon realm to heft the dead Sannin over its should, before Naruto himself summoned the four back to his hiding spot within the paper tree.

**Konan vs Sauske**

Konan had added her paper wings so she could fire the paper kunai knives with ease, and Sauske was currently hard pressed to avoid them after finding out that her paper could overpower his fire style attacks. She was currently firing countless paper attacks at the young Uchiha as he used his sharingan to dodge them, or use a lighting shield of some sort to block them. All the while spout off random insults and superiority phrases that she wasn't really paying attention to. When suddenly the Uchiha boy turned and slung his hand around gathering lighting into it.

**Chidori senbon **

**Dance of the shikigami **

Sauske fired the lighting projectiles at his opponent only for the blue haired woman to turn into thousands of sheets of paper and float higher into the sky. Growing increasingly frustrated in his inability to harm this woman, and running low on chakra from the continued usage of so many chidori techniques he activated his curse mark.

**Curse seal of heaven**

Konan watched as black markings spread across Sauske's body and she felt a spike of sinister chakra, similar to that of Orochimaru. She quickly started to reform her body and decided on her next course of action, she had a good idea how to win this.

"Relying on the power of someone else, it's hard to believe your Itachi's brother, I expected so much more." Konan told Sauske in an attempt to get a rise out of him.

"You you're going to tell me everything about Itachi, now!" Sauske yelled as the curse markings continued to spread across his body and he let his anger take control of his mind.

"I will tell you this, as you are now the only way you will ever beat Itachi is if he let you win." Konan mocked the youngest Uchiha as she threw more paper shuriken at him. That pushed him over the edge, and into his second cursed seal state, his body melding and warping until what now stood beneath Konan was a strange purple monster with wings.

Konan then proceeded to quickly surround the curse seal enhanced Sauske with thousands of sheets of paper and began to cling them to his body, she then moved closer to him and formed a razor sharp spear out of the paper and prepared to incapacitate him. However just as she was about to do so Sauske reached a lightning coated fist through the paper wrappings she had placed on him and plunged it straight into her chest.

**Chidori **

Only for her to turn into paper and then a half second later explode. BOOM! The resounding explosion threw Sauske backward and onto his back skittering along the ground as the force of the blast took its toll on his body. Konan seeing this opening wasted no time in making her next attack.

**Paper chakram**

The thirty inch circular disc was sent flying at the downed Uchiha at an unbelievable speed, Sauske attempted to dodge, but was unable to full avoid the entirety of the blue haired Akatsuki's attack, as the chakra enhanced razor sharp paper disc met with the cursed seal enhanced flesh and tore through it, resulting in one of his bat like wings being sliced off in the process. He barely recovered from that blow before another one was upon him, this time four more of the razor sharp paper discs where headed straight for him, he started reacting as quickly as he could and managed to dodge them all just as he jumped out of the path of the last one he found himself in between three copies of the Akatsuki woman all of them wielding spears made of paper.

**Chidori current**

The current hit all three clones of the women which promptly exploded once again, throwing Sauske backwards with a great deal of force and causing him a significant amount of harm. Once again Sauske landed on his back, but this time his entire front was quickly riddled with a great deal of shurikens made out of paper. He managed to pick himself back up but his vision was starting to blur due to the blood loss, and he was tired from the prolonged fighting and his frustration over not being able to harm the paper user wasn't helping any.

He is strong willed, most other opponents wouldn't have stood back up after that attack, oh well this should end it. Konan thought as she prepared to win the battle against Sauske Uchiha.

**Paper clone **

With that Konan created four more clones; she then had two clones raise their hands above their heads along with her, while the other two formed spears and dropped down to occupy her opponent. Once the clones wielding the spears got down to where Sauske was, he engaged them in a kenjutsu battle, wisely not using that lighting technique to defend against them, but it didn't matter to Konan and her two clones anymore for they had completed their jutsu.

**Paper chakarm**

With that three paper chakarms where fired at Sauske, while Konan formed the Ram seal and detonated the two paper clones that had engaged Sauske in clone range combat, the resulting explosion, and the three bladed discs combines kicked up a great deal of dust, but when it settled the only female Akatsuki was greeted to the sight of an unconscious Sauske laying in a battered heap. Konan than turned the remaining two paper clones into sheets of paper and proceeded to wrap Sauske in them so she could transport him easier. Manipulating the paper she floated him up and moved back to the fake tree she created as a safe haven to meet back up with Pein.

**With Pein (Naruto)**

As the four realms that Naruto had used against Orochimaru arrived back at his location, he had the demon realm place the snake Sannin's body on the ground. He then proceeded to open his eyes and stood up and out of his sitting position, only to find that Konan wasn't there, this worried him, but he could still sense her chakra nearby, so without hesitation the animal realm and hungry ghost realm both took off at top speed in the direction that he sensed his angel's chakra signature. The two realms didn't travel very far before they saw an uninjured Konan carrying a figure wrapped nearly head to toe in paper back to his location.

"How did your battle go?" Konan asked once she saw the rinnegan user appear.

"I killed Orochimaru, and discovered the location of his ring, apparently he buried it within a chest in the land of sound, and I have the location." The animal path replied as the two paths waited for Konan to reach them and then they fell in step behind her.

"Very well we will send Zetsu to retrieve the ring once we return to rain we will also introduce Madara to the other members of the Akatsuki, but he will need to come up with an alias." Konan responded to the answer of his question as they fell into step together making their way back to their hiding place.

Arriving back at the tree, Naruto approached Konan with another question. "Are you okay, where you injured in your battle against Sauske?"He asked flatly, but Konan knowing him almost his entire life could tell that he was concerned; this was her first battle since he had been an adult that they partook in together, and weren't close to each other watching each other's backs. But Naruto had fought plenty of times by himself before; he killed Yagura while she was still in the rain village otherwise they wouldn't of had to wait for the three tails to reform. Still his concern was touching; he defiantly cared more for her well being than Nagato did.

"Yes I'm fine he wasn't able to damage me, it just took me awhile to wear him out he used some kind of transformation technique that increased his chakra, and his ability to receive damage. Strange he didn't use any formidable genjutsu though I just stayed back and attacked him with my paper attacks" Konan summed up her recent battle to Pein as they retrieved Orochimaru's body and began to head back to the Village hidden in the Rain.

**Three days later**

The God realm of Pain was currently standing in the meeting room in the base of the tower, Konan was standing slightly to his right but still within arm's length, while Zetsu and Madara or Tobi as he decided his alias to be, were both also there and where standing a little ways away from him, Sasuke's unconscious form that Pein had been draining of chakra using the hungry ghost realm was also present on the floor as well as the former Akatsuki member Orochimaru. Today they were introducing two new members into the Akatsuki, and rearranging the teams. But that wasn't what was at the forefront of Naruto's mind, what he was thinking the most about was the knowledge he had absorbed from the snake Sannin when he removed his soul using the human path. How he wished that Orochimaru had stayed loyal to Akatsuki so they could make even better use of his vast knowledge. Now Naruto knew he had it and would do his best to make the most efficient use of it.

Soon more Akatsuki members arrived with Kakuzu and Hidan being the first, followed by Sasori and Deidera, Shockingly Hiruko showed up before Itachi and Kisame did, but not by much but Kisame did have a person slung over his shoulder so that could have held them up. While the god realm showed nothing the outer realm, Naruto's true body took a deep breath and began his speech.

"Today we welcome two new members to the Akatsuki. The one in the orange mask is Tobi, the shorter one wrapped in bandages is Hiruko of the leaf, Hiruko will be partnered with Sasori and shall be receiving Orochimaru's ring which is to be worn upon your left little finger." The god realm of Pein spoke in a completely flat tone and reached into his cloak to produce a slate blue ring with the kanji for 'void' on it.

"That's all well and good but what about the sharingan I was promised?" Hiruko questioned the Akatsuki 'leader'.

"It would do you to show a little more respect, yeah." Deidera informed the bloodline thief.

"Its fine Deidera, as for the sharingan you where promised it is right here." Pein said as he gestured to Sauske.

"Hey Itachi ain't that your kid brother, heh I guess Leader saved you some trouble of having to take care of him yourself." Kisame stated to his partner but loudly enough he may as well have been talking to the room.

"This capturing alive shit is gone on too much I keep breaking my beliefs for this shit." Hidan complained once again to Kakuzu but wasn't exactly keeping his voice down.

"Hidan, shut up." Was Kakuzu's curt reply

"Aww your no fun Kakuzu" Hidan complained once again prompting Kakuzu to take a swing at him only for Hidan to block it with his tri-bladed scythe.

"That's enough." Pein announced to the rowdy Akatsuki members once they all settled down he continued talking. "Now Tobi will be partnered with Deidera and will be taking Zetsu's ring, which is to be worn on the right little finger." Pein concluded and produced a ring from within his Akatsuki cloak; this ring was green in color and had the kanji for 'sign of the boar'.

"Wooohooo. This is gonna be great. Deidera and me are gonna be so good together we will complete all missions and have all kinds of fun and become best friends, because Tobi and Deidera are good boys." Tobi started spouting off to the other Akatsuki as he moved to try and hug Deidera much to the blond mans objection.

Deidera along with all the other Akatsuki just stared on in disbelief at the outburst just displayed by their newest member. Konan and Naruto were both beyond shocked by the sudden one eighty that Madara had pulled, considering his serious attitude when he was giving them orders.

"Very well, now Kisame mind explaining what that is on your shoulder?" the Akatsuki leader questioned Kisame, while the shark-like man just grinned.

"It's the four tail's jinchuriki." Kisame stated with a face splitting smug smile.

"Very well we will seal it, Zetsu watch Sasuke while we perform the sealing." With that Pein lead them all to a wide open area and summoned the demonic statue of the outer path. After a brief explanation of how to use the rings in conjunction with the sealing the sealing began.

"Kakuzu after this is over Orochimaru's body is yours to turn in for the best bounty you can locate, after that I want you and Hidan to continue going after more bounties we still need more funds." Pein told Kakuzu and Hidan.

Kakuzu's eye lit up at the thought of cashing Orochimaru's incredibly high bounty, all that cash. He couldn't wait it may even be worth the long walk listening to his partner's constant bitching.

Naruto thought on it hard and remembered something else Konan wanted him to order. "Deidera you and Tobi shall be retrieving the five tails next. I believe you are familiar with him?" Pein stated

"Yea hm, old Han tough fellow but nothing I can't handle." Deidera stated full of confidence

"Good, this one is Tobi's target; you already caught the one-tail, assist Tobi in catching the five tails Deidera." Pein ordered

"Wow Tobi gets a job already, well Tobi knows he can do it after all Tobi is a good boy isn't that right Deidera? Deidera? Deeeederrraaaa?" Tobi started going on about how much fun he and Deidera would have on this mission in his high pitched voice annoying some members but making both Hidan and Kisame laugh.

Once things settled down a bit more Pein talked once again. "Hiruko you and Sasori will be retrieving the seven tails after Hiruko assimilates the sharingan into himself. While you two do those things Konan and I retrieve the six tails."

Getting nods of understanding from Sasori and Hiruko he looked at Itachi and Kisame. "Itachi, Kisame I need the two of you to gather information on the current jinchuriki of the nine tails, seeing as how she is from yours and Hiruko's village Itachi I believe that you and Kisame would be ideal for finding this information." Pein said to Itachi and Kisame

Just as the duo were about to reply Hiruko spoke up. "You all don't know who the nine tail's jinchuriki is?" he questioned sounding as though he didn't quite believe what he was hearing.

Naruto looked at him through the eyes of the god realm and responded truthfully. "No we do not."

Hiruko broke out into laughter which only served to irritate or confuse most of the shinobi gathered there, but for Itachi it served another purpose, it frightened him, especially when Hiruko opened his mouth the next time. "The nine tails jinchuriki is a woman named Kushina Uzumaki, red head, I reckon she would be about forty years old by now if not a little older. Married to the current Hokage, she isn't all that remarkable other than the fact that she is a jinchuriki, on her own she is an average jonin." Hiruko informed the group all the while Pein was taking this in and changing his plan.

"Itachi, Kisame I want the two of you to assist Kakuzu and Hidan in gathering more funds for our organization." Naruto said then became silent as he left the Akatsuki to talk amongst themselves. The sealing jutsu only required a day with all ten of them gathered in the same place at once and having the tenth ring back was a big help, soon the Akatsuki dispersed each off to do their own assignments given to them by 'Pein'. With Hiruko hauling Sasuke off to God knows were to assimilate him into himself. Pein gave one more order, this one to Zetsu, find and follow Kushina Uzumaki and make a profile for her, find out her strengths and weaknesses and when she is most vulnerable to an attack. After that he left to go find Konan and talk to her about an idea he now had since shuffling through Orochimaru's memories.

First he went back to his storage room and put the god realm back into its bed and removed its ring and placed it on his own thumb, after that he walked off in search of his blue haired angel. It didn't take long to find her; she was sitting in an office over a desk filling out papers, no doubt for the running of the village, upon discovering Konan working so diligently Naruto took a moment and paused at the doorway, he leaned against the door frame and observed her for a moment, she was beautiful, incredibly so, his eyes had great powers of perception, and even his eyes never found a flaw on her like they did on so many others, that was always one of the reasons he was so selective about woman, only two other woman had ever made it to the standards his eyes had set for him, and he ended up killing them after he was done with them so they couldn't speak about him or his rinnegan after all it wouldn't do for a god to have one night stands because he simply became curious, and neither of those two woman were as flawless as Konan was, maybe it had something to do with her paper techniques. He always wondered if he should tell her how beautiful she is. He quietly observed her for a few more seconds before he fully entered the room and closed the door alerting her to his presence; apparently she was very engrossed in her work.

Looking up at him Konan was glad to see that Naruto came himself instead of sending one of his paths to talk to her, it almost brought a smile to her face, almost. "Naruto what is it?"

"Konan I need to talk to you, it's about Madara." Naruto stated, but silently happy over the fact that she called him Naruto instead of Pain, he knew coming here himself was a good idea.

"What about him?" Konan asked as she looked at Naruto beckoning him to go on.

"I don't believe he is who he says he is, when I absorbed Orochimaru's memories, I found that Orochimaru has the dead body of Madara Uchiha locked away in one of his secret laboratories." The red haired young man explained to the Rain village's Angel.

Konan found this to be incredibly interesting, so Tobi wasn't who he claimed, that meant she would have to rework her strategy to defeat him. "Thank you for informing me of this, you did a good job discovering it. We will have to find another way to fight him than, but if he isn't Madara he shouldn't be as powerful." That was something that Naruto did that Nagato didn't, when Naruto used the human realm on an opponent he normally took the time to get all their memories, were as Nagato only took the ones he needed. Naruto's way consumed more time but unless you're in the heat of battle there isn't any real reason not to do it.

But Naruto wasn't quite finished yet he had more to tell her. "I think I discovered a way to assist fighting him when I was looking through Orochimaru's memories" Naruto said and moved closer to her to ensure nobody could hear what was being said.

**Two days later: November 1**

Naruto currently had just finished his project of infusing water style into the hell realm, three elements down two to go. He thought as he was just about to move to the next one he noticed that the red nail polish he and Konan both wore had been mostly scrapped off something he needed to fix, if he knew how to that was, he would normally wait for Konan but she had gone to the grave she made for Nagato, today was the anniversary of his death she always went to visit him on this day, and he never really would see her except during dinner, where she would seem unusually sad. As he was thinking all of this over he had made his way to the office he and Konan shared and withdrew a bottle of red nail polish from a desk.

Figuring that it couldn't be that hard, The god of the rain proceeded to uncap the bottle and attempt to clumsily mimic what he had seen Konan do so many times, he kind of wondered why this part of the dress code was even put into effect, he also wondered how the other members of the organization got their nails painted anyway, it wasn't like that had Konan as their partner to do it for them, he had trouble imagining Kakuzu and Hidan painting either their own or each other's nails, Deidera and Sasori were artists so he could understand them being good at it, Itachi seemed to excel at everything he tried, so maybe he painted his and helped Kisame. Naruto soon noticed he was thinking way too much into this and was spilling the nail polish onto his cloak. Looking down at his fully painted nails and now stained cloak he decided that was enough for one day, he put the polish away and returned to his room to retrieve a new cloak.

Konan was just returning to where she and Naruto lived after having visited Nagato's grave, she was currently climbing the stairs to find Naruto and talk to him. Reaching the entrance to his room she found him putting his cloak on and placing a different cloak into a laundry chute. She approached him and spoke.

"Naruto will you come with me please I want to show you something." Konan asked him as she picked up a pair of the sedge hats Naruto kept around, she kept one for herself and handed the other to him.

"Lead the way." He said and was curious as to what Konan could want on a day like today. Once he said that Konan turned and walked out leading Naruto out of the tower and trough the village toward the outskirts of it finally coming to a small wooden building next to a lake. Konan opened the door of it and walked in. inside the room was divided in two horizontally by a curtain with sinks going up the left hand side. In the upper area was a small shelf to the right side where three plaques with pictures of frogs on them and one plaque on the opposite side.

Konan then turned one of the plaques over to reveal a red side on the other side before she turned and addressed Naruto. "This is where I grew up, from nine years old to eighteen. Up until the day that Nagato killed Hanzo. When I was a little girl I told you I was orphaned." She looked at Naruto to see him give her a curt nod and he was remaining silent.

Konan continued her story. "During the second shinobi world war, the Rain became a battleground because of its central location, so many people were kill, the leaf, sand, rock fought here a great deal, my parents were killed in the crossfire between Leaf shinobi and Sand Shinobi." Konan opened up to the rinnegan user, and though she kept her voice even and face carefully stoic he could tell she was growing upset but she continued one. "After that I was orphaned and left to fend for myself, but I was found by another orphan, Yahiko, we managed to survive for a short while but it was very hard to do in a war torn country with Salamander Hanzo as the leader. A little while later I found Nagato and brought along also, and together the three of us survived and became close friends." She stopped here and took a breath Naruto could tell her story was getting to her; he could also tell she had an affinity for finding rinnegan users.

"If this is upsetting you, then you don't need to continue." Naruto state with some emotion seeping into his voice.

"No its okay, after about a year of surviving together, the Sannin battle against Hanzo, on their way back to their village they ran into us three, Orochimaru wanted to kill us so we wouldn't have to suffer the horrors of war, Tsunade didn't seem to care one way or another, but Jiraiya, he decided to stay with us and train us to look after ourselves. Once he saw the rinnegan Nagato possessed he became obsessed with some legend a toad had told him about a child that he would train that would save the world. Jiraiya stayed with us until I was fourteen. After he left we formed Akatsuki as a mercenary group, until one day…." Konan explained and started to get more and more depressed as the story went on.

Naruto meanwhile wondered what he should do; he wasn't used to seeing anyone in emotional turmoil and was currently drudging up all the memories he could that had to do with the subject. But his attention shifted back to Konan as she continued her story.

"Hanzo feared we might overthrow him, someday, so he along with a man named Danzo from the leaf village set a trap for us, capturing me and forcing Nagato to kill Yahiko. Nagato was shocked, he didn't know what to do, I kept yelling at them to run, but Yahiko, and he killed himself to save me." Konan said and Naruto could tell the emotional distress was back again. But he did remember what Konan had done for him when he was younger and was weepy, or sad or upset. He just hoped it worked both ways.

Konan was struggling to keep her composer with Naruto here, after she had just relayed her story to him, she decided after all she had done to him, he deserved to know her past as well as she knew his, but recalling it always made her want to weep despite her normally stoic disposition. When suddenly Naruto was standing directly in front of her, she took a second to realize just how much taller he was than her now, she had always been on the shorter end of the spectrum, from not getting proper nutrition when she was younger, but she was wearing heels and Naruto was a full head taller than she was. She didn't have much time to think on it, because as soon as he came to stand in front of her he proceeded to wrap his arms around her. Without really thinking about it she returned the gesture. Wrapping her arms around him also and pressing her face into his chest and closing her eyes, it was very comforting inhaling his scent and allowing the young man to comfort her pressing into him.

Without really thinking before she spoke Konan mumbled out. "You know last time we hugged I was still taller than you."

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A/N: Well anyways chapter two done, and before people complain about Sasuke's fire style not working, Konan was able to overpower Jiraiya's oil empowered flame style attack with her paper. Both Tobi and Hiruko join Akatsuki and a little Konan/Naruto development there toward the end. Anyway enjoy read and review.

GOD BLESS


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Naruto's true body appearance is basically how he appeared in the anime second part except without whisker mark and with red hair; he is five feet ten inches tall (5'10") and weighs one hundred and ninety pounds(190lbs). He always wears an Akatsuki cloak unless otherwise specified underneath he has the standard shinobi clothing, mesh body suit, navy blue shirt, grey pants and white leg warmers, and the standard shinobi sandals both his fingernails and toes are painted red along with the nails of all his paths. His true body has no piercings.

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Naruto franchise

**Rain village  
**the next day

Naruto was currently sitting in a char across from Konan as she held one of his hands and was carefully repainting his nails, he should have known better than to try and paint then himself, for when she took one look at his sloppily applied nail polish and told him she would be reapplying it when they got back. So that is where they currently were, sitting across from each other at a table, Konan had what he assumed to be a beauty supply kit out and she was currently painting his nails, it was strange to see the kit so jammed full of bottles, considering the only beauty products he knew Konan to wear was the same red nail polish as himself and the blue eye shadow, he just supposed he was lucky he didn't have to worry about that kind of thing. Looking at the contrast between his right hand he painted and the left hand that Konan was currently working on painting he did see a clear difference in her ability compared to his own.

Meanwhile Konan who was working diligently on repainting the disaster that was Naruto's attempt to paint his own nails. It was just the previous day Konan had told Naruto everything about her past, from the deaths of her parents to meeting Nagato and Yahiko, to meeting the Sannin, and training under Jiraiya, forming Akatsuki, the events leading up to Hanzo's death and Nagato coming into power in the Rain village. To Nagato's death developing the demonic statue of the outer path. What really shocked Naruto was when she told him that he had been using her friend Yahiko's body as his god realm. At first he offered to find a new god realm so she could bury Yahiko, but she convinced him that doing so would alert the rest of the Akatsuki to his power, which wouldn't be a good idea. Currently she was biting the inside of her labret piercing a habit she had developed when she was concentrating hard or conflicted over something. She was currently trying to figure out who this Tobi was, if he truly wasn't Madara Uchiha, than he was someone with a rather intimate knowledge of the leaf and the Sage of six paths, as well as Madara and the first Hokage. She decided that Naruto and she would have to go to Orochimaru's hiding place and retrieve Madara's corpse and use it to confront Tobi with it at some later time. Maybe Naruto could use it as one of his paths. She would figure something out.

Naruto while all this was going on had noticed the shift in Konan's mouth indicating she was biting the back of her piercing, he wondered what she was thinking so hard about, as he doubted it was painting his nails. But he knew that she would tell him when she was ready. As Konan was working on his nails he started feeling a mental pull on his ring, a member of the Akatsuki was attempting to call a meeting using the **astral projection jutsu** one look at Konan's face and he knew that she sensed it also.

"Activate the god realm and call the meeting, let's find out what's going on." Konan instructed as she finished Naruto's nails.

Once Konan released his hand he rose from his chair and moved to the storage room and put his ring on the god realm, before he had it make the ram seal.

**Astral projection jutsu**

Suddenly they were in a wide open area that appeared to be atop a mountain. Sasori and Hiruko's true bodies were both there, meaning they were the ones that called the meeting. But what was strange was Sasori was no longer in his puppet armor revealing Sasori to be a rather young looking red haired boy with a gentle face, Deidera and Tobi were there, and quickly followed by Hidan and Kakuzu, and finally Kisame showed up alone this sparked Pein's interest.

"Where is Itachi at Kisame?" Pein questioned Kisame

"He said he was going after a bounty in the land of wind, I don't know why he isn't here." Kisame responded sounding a little more out of it than normal.

"Well I can tell you he isn't in the land of wind, because Itachi came and took Sauske from me before I've gotten a chance to assimilate him." Hiruko announced with quite a bit of anger laced into his voice.

"He managed to destroy a few of my puppets in the brief skirmish we had before he took Sauske and fled." Sasori announced to the group yet he didn't seem to be as upset as his partner did.

"Hn so Itachi turned traitor then yeah, lemme and Tobi go after him leader, I'll show him my art yeah this time he won't know what hit em." Deidera announced to the gathered Akatsuki with thinly veiled anticipation.

"No Deidera, you were already beaten by Itachi, we should handle him." Sasori said to his former partner, indicating he though himself and Hiruko better suited to the task.

"Deidera and Tobi are a good team, we can handle Itachi, nobody can beat Deidera he is awesome!" came the annoying voice of Tobi to add his two cents into the conversation

Kakuzu's hologram had been leafing thru a book before he stopped and spoke up. "Actually I think it best if myself and Hidan would be best to go after Itachi."

"You just want to collect the bounty on Itachi Kakuzu, with itachi its personal lemme kill him." Deidera stated to the group once again.

Konan had been taking all this in, Itachi had betrayed them to save his younger brother not entirely out of the question but still farfetched to her, this was the same younger brother that had been trying to kill him for the last eleven years, it would seem a blessing to have one less person after your head in her mind anyway, but some bonds of family must be incredibly difficult to break if he was willing to save a family member who wants to kill him. Pushing those thoughts aside Konan maneuvered herself to be where only Pein could see her so she could indicate who she thought they should send after the recently gone rouge Akatsuki member. She quickly indicated the immortal duo, Hidan and Kakuzu. She knew by Tobi's outburst that he wanted to go after the wayward Uchiha brothers, but she didn't think it would be best, plus this was a chance to see just how much power Tobi thinks he has.

"Kakuzu, Hidan, the two of you will hunt down Itachi, if Sauske is with him, do not kill him, capture him alive and return him to Hiruko, Kisame I want you to tell Kakuzu and Hidan all you know of Itachi's techniques, Konan will tell you about Sauske's in case they fight the two of you together. The rest of you are dismissed and should continue your original assignments, I want the five tails soon." Pein finished and allowed the shark like Akatsuki member to take over, and after he was done explaining about Itachi's technique's Konan explained about his younger brother's abilities before Pein sent them all off on their assignments.

Phasing back to their original bodies Konan was noticeably upset by Itachi's betrayal, they had not had a betrayal in nearly ten years, and until today the only member of Akatsuki to ever betray the organization had been Orochimaru. But now Itachi had done so as well. What was happening to the group Yahiko, Nagato, and she formed all those years ago? Pushing those thoughts aside she looked outside, a sunset, it was so rare a sight here since Pein kept it almost constantly raining in the village so he could detect intruders. She moved to the window and watched the sun go the rest of the way down. She soon registered that she was joined in watching the sun set.

Naruto had just walked into the main office he and Konan shared, he needed a clear view of the sky to reinitiate his jutsu to start the rain, but when he saw Konan leaning against the doorway to the balcony watching the sun set he decided that instead of restarting the rain at this time he would rather join her in watching the rarely seen sun finish it's decent. So he moved and stood slightly behind her and together they watched the sun set.

**Rain village November fourth  
**two days later

Naruto was currently in the old library looking over many different scrolls and flipping thru a great deal of books left behind by Hanzo. He was looking for more information on sealing techniques, since Konan was always busy with looking over the village she never got a chance to improve her techniques anymore, so Naruto decided to look through Hanzo's legacy to see if there was anything on sealing in them that Konan could incorporate into her paper ninjutsu. She would be the ideal candidate for using fuinjutsu so if Naruto could come up with some tags that did something other than explode and give them to her that she would have an even greater arsenal at her disposal. So far most all the books were on theory, and large scale sealing techniques that he knew plenty of already.

Several stories up was the only other Akatsuki member to not be labeled a missing ninja, Konan was looking over different papers that had to do with the running of the Rain village, but her mind was else were, there were always two days a year that made Konan lose focus on whatever it was she was supposed to be doing, those days where November first and November fourth, the first because it was the day that Nagato died, and the fourth because it was the day that she found Naruto. Another thing she always felt bad about was Naruto's lack of childhood when this day came around reminding her that she did in fact drag a six year old all the way up to rain village and into a criminal organization; she never did give him a proper birthday growing up, partly due to the fact that he couldn't remember when his birthday was, but she also never had such a thing growing up past her ninth birthday, so she was clueless on how to plan a birthday party, plus she didn't think it becoming of him to have such a childish tradition he was supposed to be a god after all. Still it would have been nice if they were both different people, and the burden of peace was on someone else's shoulders, but alas it wasn't.

Konan's thoughts were interrupted by Naruto when he appeared at the doorway to their joined office holding a scroll and stood there waiting for her to acknowledge him, but it didn't take long. "What is it Naruto?" Konan asked, when she did Naruto walked forward and placed a scroll onto the table she was working on.

"Have you ever considered applying more than just explosive seals to your paper ninjutsu?" Naruto asked Konan as he showed her the one battle useful fuinjutsu technique he had discover out of all the fuinjutsu techniques in the library.

"I have had some thought about it, but I never got around to doing it, so you think this one could be useful in battle?" she asked Naruto though already guessing the answer.

"Yes it's the **chakra absorption seal **Imagine if you were able to wrap your opponent completely in paper with those seals on it, they would be quickly incapacitated and you would be able to go for the kill." Naruto explained his idea to her in a completely flat monotone voice.

Konan looked the scroll over, she wondered why she never saw it before, but she did stop learning new techniques after she turned twenty two and just focused on honing her skills, so she never really spent much time in the library Hanzo had left behind. But looking at the seal she knew that it would be useful if she could integrated it with her paper techniques.

"Thank you for brining this to me Naruto, I will be sure to start working on this. Also be prepared in a few days I will be leaving to retrieve Madara's corpse so you will need to look after the village by yourself." Konan responded to the red haired dojutsu user.

"Very well that shouldn't be a problem." Naruto assured Konan as he took a handful of papers off of the desk she was currently sitting at and brought them over to a separate desk, he then sat down and began going over the papers and filling out different orders ranging from resupplying hospitals and stores, to purchasing food, and building materials from other parts of the land of rain.

Konan suppressed a smile when Naruto took the order papers off her desk and began filling them out, she had always been able to keep all of the paperwork for the running of the village clear, and as he had grown older that job had become easier for her to do as Naruto started helping her with the paperwork as well. Teaching him to read and write was probably the second greatest challenge she had ever encountered, with the first being telling Naruto about her past, it wasn't that he was incapable of learning to read and write, it was just doing anything with a traumatized six year old with amnesia who she was manipulating into leading S-ranked criminals was incredibly difficulty, she was definitely much happier that he grew in strength quickly.

The day passed quickly for the two Akatsuki partners who were doing the weekly load of paperwork and soon Konan finished her stack of papers and got up and left the room, heading for the kitchen on the lower floors. She got down there and lit the stove, placing a pan on top of and selected a couple of cuts of fish that looked like it was still swimming a half hour ago and placed them onto the stove, a perk of living in the rain village, there was always fresh fish. Now normally she would have a hired cook do this if it was just her, but keeping Naruto safe was too great a priority for her not to go the extra mile and make sure that everything around him was as safe as she could possibly make it. When he was younger that was a far greater problem than it was now. Konan continued the process of making dinner, making noodles and boiling green beans that had been brought in. She set the meal on the table that was located in the same room as the kitchen and also put down two plates with the appropriate silver wear and drinking glasses. After that she left the room to go fetch Naruto. Ever since she was young she and the other orphans Nagato and Yahiko always ate dinner together, and when she found Naruto she continued on with that tradition with him, eating dinner with him every night when they were both together.

Stepping back into the office where Naruto was now looking out the window at the pouring rain having finished the rest of the paperwork. "Dinner is ready" Konan informed him in her stoic yet ever so soft voice, once he turned around and began walking toward the door to go to the kitchen, she too feel in step with him.

Naruto made it into the kitchen/dining area and took his seat, Konan took a seat across from him about a second later, and once she sat down they both reached across the table joined hands and bowed their heads together. Konan than said the blessing for the food for the two Akatsuki leaders and friends, with the blessing said they began to eat, while making light conversation throughout the meal. Hours later Naruto was upstairs sitting in his storage room in front of the bed holding the animal realm and attempting to infuse Wind style into the animal realm when Konan appeared at his doorway and walked in.

Konan stood in front of Naruto and leaned down pressed her lips against his forehead, lightly kissing him there before pulling away and offering a small smile. "Happy birthday" she told him before she turned and left, leaving him slightly dumfounded, until it hit him thirteen years ago today was the day she rescued him from drowning, and brought him back here. Despite himself he broke into a small smile and leaned back in the chair.

**Four days later**

Konan was currently returning to the Rain village with a large paper bundle floating behind her, inside of it was the corpse of the man who was hailed as the greatest Uchiha to ever live, Madara Uchiha, finding this body told Konan two things, the first was man in the mask Tobi if you will, was not who he claimed, and the second was that Orochimaru had access to the DNA of the first Hokage, and the wood style jutsu thru the dead body of Madara Uchiha, no doubt acquired from when the founding fire shadow, Hashirama Senju killed him at the valley of the end. She was only about half a day out from the Rain village at her current pace she was also contemplating what the next order of business was for them, which more than likely was going to be the capture of the six tails. Something that Pein should have no problem accomplishing on his own while she ran the village, after all she doubted that there was any combination of five ninja that could defeat him, let alone just one. The only reason they had not turned on Tobi yet was because of his teleportation abilities, they couldn't afford to let him get away. She continued her thoughts and plans for the future as she continued to travel back to the rain village.

**Rain village  
**same time

The Hell and animal realms had just rammed chakra disruptor blades into the backs of their downed opponent who was clad in Leaf village anbu armor and was wearing a nondescript mask while the demon realm had just crushed a separate one of the anbu members to death. The leader of the group who appeared to be scurrying away was quickly caught by the superior speed possessed by the human realm. The downed leader of the infiltration and information gathering team was currently terrified; the four men he and his men had just fought were brutally effective and seemed to be without mercy, normally if a team was caught infiltrating they were taken prisoner, interrogated and then ultimately ransomed back to their village of origin, but these four men had just showed up and attacked, slaughtering his men without any kind of remorse of asking of them to surrender.

While the only reaming living member of the infiltration squad sent by the leaf was currently trying to move out of Pein's vision and make himself as small as possible he approached. Pein himself was not amused at the man's feeble attempts to flee, and using the human path reached down and grabbed the leader of the intruders by the top of the head, quickly activating the soul removal ability of the realm he drew the soul out of the lead anbu and learned everything he knew in the process.

"Interesting so the Hokage ordered Danzo to send these men to infiltrate mine and Konan's village, its also rather interesting that they still think Hanzo of the Salamander is in charge best to keep it that way for as long as possible." Pein stated to nobody in particular and he used the outer realm to summon his other realms back to his location in the tower to continue to monitor the village and wait for his blue haired angel to return. He couldn't wait until she came back so he could occupy himself with other things like researching ways to strengthen his realms, and looking in to more kinjutsu, instead he was stuck in an office filling out paperwork for the day to day running of the village, but it was what Konan wanted him to do so he wasn't going to make something out of it, so pulling out a piece of paper he began writing down the information he received from the leaf village anbu leader that tried to infiltrate with his team earlier today he didn't doubt that Konan would want to know what it was about, and it would be wise for him to write as much of it down as possible while it was still fresh in his mind. While writing out the report as if he were a regular jonin in the village and not its 'leader' Naruto brought his hand up to his mouth and coughed into it briefly before continuing to write the report.

**Leaf village  
**two days later

At the moment three high level shinobi were all gathered in the Hokage's office, the Hokage himself Minato Namikaze the revered space/time jutsu expert of the leaf, Jiraiya of the Sannin the spymaster of the leaf, and the toad sage, and Danzo the commander of the anbu black ops faction root. They were all gather in the office of the fire shadow to discuss what appeared to be their third failed attempt at infiltrating the rain village, and the increased movements of the terrorist organization the Akatsuki.

"Could it be possible that your team is just late in sending their report?" questioned a concerned blonde Hokage to the aged leader of root.

"No, they are always on time, and one of the men I sent has a unique way of sending messages through animals made of ink. They are nearly undetectable only a very skilled byakugan user can detect them. The only conclusion I can come to is that they were caught." Danzo told the room

"But if they were caught then why haven't we received a ransom demand yet?" asked Minato

"Because Minato, they are probably dead." Jiraiya decided to cut into the conversation.

"What why do you think that Sensei?" asked the blond Hokage of his former teacher with an exhausted look on his face.

This time it was Danzo who decided to respond. "Keep in mind they were sent to infiltrate the Hidden Rain, I know since your reign as Hokage you haven't had much contact with that village, but both myself and Jiraiya have, the leader of the rain is Salamander Hanzo, he was the one who defeated all three Sannin at once in their prime during the second shinobi world war." Danzo informed the young Hokage.

Minato stopped to think that one over, all three Sannin at once; Jiraiya sensei still gave him a lot of trouble when they spared that Hanzo guy must be some kind of monster.

"It's true Minato, and after the second shinobi world war he completely closed his borders to any outsiders, he kills anyone that tries to enter his village, apparently there is a civil war going on in Rain and he wants to keep everything in house, so locking the borders probably seems like an ideal solution to him." Jiraiya explained to his student.

"Well I heard the Akatsuki was in Rain some were so we need to get in there and find out what's going on, I can't let Kushina be taken by those people." Minato announced to the room

"Yes I agree with that we must keep her in the village at all costs, I will prep another team of root anbu to infiltrate than Hokage?" Danzo questioned the blond fire shadow.

"No this time I will go myself with my skills I should be able to get in far easier than the anbu and I can fight toe to toe with any of the Akatsuki members we've seen so far if they really are there." Jiraiya stated confidently to the other shinobi in the room.

"Sensei are you sure, you guys just said it was really dangerous going up against Hanzo." Minato told the room as he looked back and forth between Jiraiya and Danzo.

"Don't worry I'll be fine, I infiltrated the rock village and got out without anyone knowing, the rain village can't be harder that they were." Jiraiya said still as confident as ever, and looking forward to a possible rematch with Hanzo now that he had sage mode at his disposal for the rematch.

"Very well Jiraiya do you want shinobi to accompany you, or will you be making the trip alone?" Danzo questioned the toad sage, though he figured he already knew the answer.

"I'll go myself, I shouldn't be gone to long, a couple weeks at most I suppose, I'll be back soon, tell Kushina and Natsumi I'll drop by with ramen when I get back." Jiraiya said making his promise to visit his student's family after his return from his infiltration mission as he hopped out the window in typical fashion.

"I will be taking my leave also, than Hokage." Danzo stated and left the room, no doubt to check in on his other black ops campaigns.

Hours passed by as the yellow flash of the leaf village filled out paper work and went home to be greeted to the sight of a red haired woman leafing through a book, most likely a romance novel, and trying to ignore a blond teenage girl sitting next to her that was constantly pestering her. Home sweet home he supposed.

Kushina immediately upon seeing her husband had arrived home smiled a weary smile at him and spoke. "Hello honey how was your day?"

"Long, also Jiraiya sensei said he plans on coming to dinner in a few weeks." Minato told Kushina and Natsumi, Kushina immediately knew what that meant '_Jiraiya had been sent out on another high risk mission'_ while Natsumi remained blissfully unaware just thinking that it meant that her godfather would be stopping by with presents and another fun story to tell her when he came to dinner. It was a code Minato and Kushina developed long ago before their son up and vanished when he was at the park with his baby sitter and Natsumi was an infant, it was designed to keep them from worrying about Jiraiya.

"Woohoo I can't wait until old man Jiraiya stops by it will be so much fun, he promised last time he would show me some really cool techniques, I can't wait." Natsumi exclaimed excitedly.

Both the Namikaze smiled at the enthusiasm that was displayed by their daughter they could always count on her to lighten the mood, she may have inherited Minato's hair color and facial shape, but she defiantly got Kushina's attitude. The family than finished their night with dinner, and conversation about what their days entailed.

Later at night when Minato and Kushina where lying down for the night, Kushina turned to face Minato with a serious express on her face, an expression rarely seen from her.

"What mission is Jiraiya going on that's so dangerous?" Kushina asked Minato, though she was frightened about the answer, Jiraiya was one of the most powerful shinobi she had ever seen it something was dangerous for him than it was cause for concern.

"He's going to try to infiltrate the village hidden in the Rain. The last squad I sent wasn't able to do it so sensei wants to try; he is a much better spy than even the best of the anbu so I have confidence in him." Minato tried to reassure his wife before she got to worried.

"The rain huh isn't that were all these Akatsuki people are supposed to be holed up now?" she asked Minato remembering hearing something along those lines as gossip from the other jonin.

Despite her best attempts at hiding it her husband heard the fear in which she addressed the Akatsuki, after all who wouldn't be scared of an organization full of Itachi Uchihas and Sasori of the red sands and Kisame Hoshigakis and Deideras of the explosive style coming after you? And those were just the ones they knew of what if there were more? So pulling his wife closer to him to comfort her he spoke softly to her.

"You know I would never let anything or anyone hurt you, trust me your safe as long as I'm around." Minato told her and just like that all her fears washed away and she felt safe with him just like she did that day he protected her from the cloud ninja.

"You know Natsumi made chunin, are you going to teach her rasengan now?" Kushina asked.

Minato smiled in response to his wife. "When I find the time of course I will."

**Rain village  
**two hours after the Namikaze went to bed

The god realm was agitated, because standing in front of him was an upset Tobi. Why was Tobi upset one may ask, well Tobi wanted to be the one sent after the Uchiha brothers, and he wanted to convince Sasuke to join the Akatsuki, but Pein promptly said no to that and informed Tobi that Sasuke was to be assimilated into Hiruko. Now he and Tobi were engaged in a glaring contest, while Pein was idly wondering if this would be the battle to determine the true leader of Akatsuki.

"Fine if that's how its gonna be, but if Kakuzu and Hidan fail than you send me and Deidera after them next no negotiating that." Tobi said with a sense of finality to try to avoid the fact that he relented on his original demand.

"I will run my organization how I please and assign tasks to who I want, now I believe you are supposed to be retrieving the five tails Tobi I suggest you get on it." Pein droned out in a perfect monotone as if he wasn't talking to an S-rank shinobi who was thinly veiling a threat to his life.

Tobi scowled at Pein with his one visible eye but then proceeded to transport himself away. It was then that Pein realized why they didn't come to battle during this argument as his sense cleared, in the doorway behind him Konan had arrived and was standing there, so Tobi though he had a chance against just one of us, but two on one he didn't like his odds interesting. Thought Pein as he went to greet his angel and possibly his savior this day.

A/N: Itachi saves Sasuke, who didn't see that one coming; Konan and Naruto now have Madara Uchiha's body and access to the first Hokage's cells as well. Got to see Pein/Naruto protect the village from an espionage team trying to infiltrate, and to see how the Hokage lived. Anyways enjoy, read and review.

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GOD BLESS!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Naruto franchise

**Rain village  
**morning after Pein and Tobi's argument

Naruto was currently lying in his bed, wearing only his mesh body suit, and with a great deal of blankets thrown over top him, the reason he was in this situation was sitting in a chair near the bed next to the end table also in the room with him and she was currently reading a book. After Konan had arrived and presented Tobi with the option of fighting both of the S-class rain village ninja or neither, he chose neither and vacated their village. After Tobi left Konan had found the real Naruto and he debriefed her on everything that had happened why she was away. During his debriefing she noticed he was coughing very often and upon closer inspection she found he had a slight fever as well as a bad cough, once discovering this she ordered him to bed, fearing that he may get worse if he stayed up and went out and stood in the rain more, as this seemed to be one of his favorite pass times. With any luck he would be better at the end of the day if he stayed in bed and rested. Certainly within a day or two his illness would pass with him being a young and very physically fit shinobi. But it was times like this she wished she knew medical jutsu, she could always bring up a medic ninja from within the ranks of the rain village to purge the illness and have him back on his feet in no time, but she didn't trust anyone to treat Naruto other than herself. So here she would stay like every other time he had ever been sick since she had found him all those years ago, sitting in a chair within his bedroom, near the doorway watching over him to make sure he didn't get any worse and to ensure that he received anything he may need, like food, water, extra blankets, and the like. It was strange to see the S-class ninja and leader of the Akatsuki, one who had never lost a battle being sidelined by something as trivial as a cold.

Suddenly Naruto sat up upon sensing another presence nearby. Once he sat up Konan was immediately on her feet and blocking off the doorway willing a wall made of paper into existence while she swiftly moved over to where Naruto was lying on the bed. Naruto upon seeing Konan move to stand over him looked at Konan and explained what was going on.

"Zetsu just interrupted my rain, he will be here shortly." He stated to Konan, feeling an additional presences within the rain that he normally didn't, but quickly recognized the chakra signature as Zetsu. He then removed the ring bearing the kanji for 'zero' from his right thumb and handed it to Konan.

"I'll activate the god realm, and go meet him if you'd like." Naruto offered already slightly slipping into his alter ego Pein.

"Very well, I'll meet you in the lobby to give your ring to the god realm, and then we shall talk to Zetsu." Konan stated as she took the ring from the bed bound red head dojutsu user and left the room.

Once Konan left Naruto, who felt Zetsu breaking the rain right at the base of the tower, quickly reached out his chakra and projected it to the god realm. Once he awoke the god realm he made it get out of the bed it was occupying and make its way toward the door. He quickly arrived in the lobby and upon seeing Konan standing there waiting for him went and stood next to her, once she handed him his ring he put it swiftly and smoothly onto his right thumb and turned to face the doorway where Zetsu would be arriving through shortly. Never one to disappoint Zetsu did indeed open the door and come through.

"Greetings Leader, Konan." The plant like man began as he entered the room and stood across from the two rain village shinobi.

"What is it Zetsu?" Pein questioned the Akatsuki spy.

"We found the six tails. _Yes the six tails is in Tsuchigumo village with a young girl that contains a dangerous kinjutsu."_ The strangely formed Akatsuki member informed the two rain ninja.

"Interesting, what is the six tails jinchurik's name?" Pein questioned Zetsu.

"Utakata he is a missing ninja from the mist. _He uses a strange bubble ninjutsu it seems utterly ridiculous. _I didn't think it was that bad, it seemed effective when he fought those hunter ninja." The plant man argued with himself.

"Very good Zetsu, now I must inform you that Itachi went rogue, your new assignment is to assist Kakuzu and Hidan in hunting Itachi down and killing him. Do not kill Sasuke Uchiha and do not eat Itachi, we will be collecting his bounty" Pein droned out to the wood user who looked mildly shocked at Itachi's betrayal but nodded none the less and set out on his new goal.

Once Zetsu left and Pein was positive he was alone turned to Konan with questions. "When should we move to retrieve the six tails?" he asked her and Konan could have sworn under the droning monotone she heard a bit of eagerness only she could detect from years of living with and constantly being around him.

Checking to ensure nobody was around she turned on her heels and headed for the stairs intending to return to the top of the tower, the god realm followed her to receive his answer, and once she was positive they were alone she responded. "As soon as you recover you will retrieve it, I can stay and look after the village while you're gone."

"Very well." The god realm stated before removing his ring and giving it to Konan then turning on its heels and returning to the storage room. Once Konan received the ring from the body of her dead friend she continued up the stairs to where her sick friend was currently resting, she only stopping briefly at the kitchen area to fix some soup and to retrieve a cup of water before she continued on her way upstairs. Once she made it to Naruto's room, she opened the door to find the young man sitting up within the bed he occupied, the blankets she had laid upon him had fallen from his upper body exposing his bright red arms and mesh covered torso, the skin that was visible between the links of the mesh was flushed red no doubt from the slight fever he had and from the heat of being swaddled in blankets no doubt, and he was looking at her with the strangely beautiful purple eyes that sage of six paths was supposedly told to have possessed. They held each other's gaze for a moment, he has such a powerful gaze even when sick, no doubt a side effect from possessing the greatest visual jutsu to ever exist. She quickly shifted her line of sight as she moved into the room and set the tray she had been carry the soup and water on and placed it upon the end table located next to the bed Naruto was currently sitting on.

"You shouldn't be sitting up, you need to stay under the comforter or you'll make it worse." She stated in a softer than normal voice she reserved for coaxing Naruto to do things that he didn't want to really do, as it was obvious he didn't wish to remain in the bed any longer.

At first she thought he would defy her, in fact she was almost hoping for him to say 'no thanks I'd rather go do….' To at least show he had a though in his mind that didn't involve pleasing her. But after a brief second he lay back down satisfying her and paining her at once, and pulled the blankets back over himself, obscuring his body up to his neck from view with the grey blankets she had used to cover him.

Once he returned to his resting position Konan tore her eyes from the rinnegan user and focused on her alchemy, mixing some herbs into the soup that would speed up his recovery from the cold he had, and as a side effect it would make him slightly drowsy if the previous history of her using this combination of herbs was anything to go off of.

Once she had completed mixing the herbs into the soup she moved to sit on the bed with Naruto, who once he noticed her intentions moved over within the bed to accommodate her. Holding the bowl of soup in one hand and the spoon in the other she began to feed it to the sick shinobi at a slow steady pace, occasionally breaking rhythm to hand him a cup of water to drink from to replace the fluids that he had no doubt lost from sweating underneath the thick blankets she had placed on his earlier in the day. It was strange, she had not nursed the rinnegan user like this in years yet when she started doing it again it felt as normal as when she had done it when he was a young boy. Moments later his arm came to rest across her lap as he closed his eyes, no doubt from the herbal medicine within the soup taking effect. She continued to feed him for a few more minutes until she ran out of the soup she had brought up, she attempted to get Naruto to finish drinking his water, but by that time he had fallen asleep as the arm he had draped across her lap had grown heavier as a result of him drifting asleep.

Konan thought about going to do something productive, but instead she found herself just gazing down at her sleeping friend, it was baffling that such a powerful ninja, which she raised to be paranoid beyond all reason was completely content to go to sleep, even with the aid of some sleep inducing medicine, with someone in such a close proximity to him, but then again as a child he often came to her in the middle of the night when he was frightened by something. Even though it had been a long time since she had seen him sleep, apparently his innate comfort of having her in close proximity had never waned. Naruto then subconsciously shifted in his sleep slightly, tightening the arm he had draped across Konan's lap, and in that process he pulled Konan closer to him. Tenderly Konan reached forward gently ran her fingers through his blood red hair, it always amazed her how his hair could stay spiked even in the harsh weather of the village and while he was lying in bed. It was moments like these that ensured to her that she had made the right decision in bringing him here when she first found the young boy all those years ago. After lingering at her sickened companion's side for a few more moments, Konan freed herself from the arm draped across her midsection and made her way out of the room, stopping briefly to retrieve the tray of soiled dishes to take to have cleaned later.

Meanwhile Naruto instantly awoke once he felt Konan moving away from him, one of the down sides of being a sensor type he supposed, in that brief time of her sitting next to him and taking care of him, he grew accustomed to the feel of her chakra in close proximity, and once she left it disturbed him. It was even worse when he was a kid and didn't understand what he was feeling or why, and he often misinterpreted what was happening. He did later learn that when sensor types are around a certain person for long periods of time, they grow accustomed to that person's chakra and start to link feelings they commonly feel toward that person to their chakra, for Naruto the feelings he associated with Konan's chakra were warm and safe feelings. Shrugging off the slight change the environment had undergone while he was asleep. Naruto slowly sunk back into the covers, closed his eyes, and eventually went back to sleep.

**The next day  
**early morning

Naruto had just woken up, feeling much cooler, and significantly less congested than he did the day before, so he supposed Konan's herbal concoction worked like a charm, as it always had. Stretching his muscles that were slightly stiff from being in bed for a full day once he felt them loosen he then climbed out of bed, clad in only a full body mesh suit, he then moved over to the closet in the room. Opening it revealed a very limited array of clothing options, on the floor board there were several shinobi sandals lined up in a row, then a small shelf, with half the shelf covered in neatly folder grey pants with attached leg warmers, which was standard made in the rain village, and the other half of the shelf was covered in neatly folded navy blue shirts. Overtop the short shelve were many Akatsuki cloaks, a full closet of them in fact he probably had close to fifteen cloaks in his closet. Considering he only had many copies of the same outfit it didn't take Naruto long to decide on what to wear, he quickly pulled on the pants and shirt, followed by the sandals, tied his headband around his forehead, and lastly before he left the room pulled on one of the black cloaks with red clouds, signature of the organization that he had grown to love, that was sitting in his closet. Walking down the hall as he was fastening his cloak, he finished just as he made it to the overlook.

Bird-Rat-Ox-Monkey-Rat-Snake  
**Water style: Rain tiger at will**

With that the rapid downpour of rain that the village Hidden in the Rain was known for started to fall again. Closing his eyes briefly Naruto processed every single different chakra signature he felt within the encompassed area of the rain, he located no intruders. Naruto then moved to the stairs and started to go down the floors until he reached the room that he stored his paths in. once he opened the section of wall he had hidden his paths within, once the doorway was revealed Naruto entered the room and began checking over the six paths of Pein to ensure that they were in perfect condition. He would be hunting a jinchuriki soon and he needed to ensure his ultimate technique was fully functioning, so closing his eyes to focus his chakra and quickly reopening them and channeling chakra through the receivers within the bodies of the realms. All six realms then stood up at attention and began moving around. Satisfied that they all worked correctly Naruto then returned the other realms to the beds they had previously occupied and laid them back down.

"Pein" came a soft stoic voice from the entrance way.

Turning around Pein found the blue haired Akatsuki member, and true leader of the organization as far as he was concerned standing there. "What is it Konan?" he questioned his leader as he came to stand directly in front of her.

"Are you prepared to go after the six tails?" she inquired as she turned and motioned for him to walk with her.

Once they both had left the room Naruto turned and resealed the entrance to the storage room before he responded. "Yes I am prepared. When shall I leave?" he questioned his partner as they continued to walk down the hallway.

"As soon as possible." She told him, than she turned and looked him fully in his legendary purple eyes before she spoke again. "How are you feeling?"

"Significantly better than I did yesterday, thank you for attending to me." He told Konan with a slight smile only she had ever seen since he arrived here.

Nodding her head slightly Konan decided she was happy with his recovery and allowed him to go after the six tails shortly after midday and after making sure he was no longer showing symptoms of the illness. She was slightly worried about sending him off by himself, it would be the first time he was ever outside of the rain village by himself, but she supposed that he needed to have that experience, she couldn't hold his hand forever, in fact when she looked back over his life she supposed she had smothered him a little too often. This would be a good growing experience for him.

Naruto was soon a black and red blur moving toward Tsuchigumo village, he chose to travel by himself because a single man traveling was far quicker and drew much less attention, also he could always summon his realms to him when he needed. He made good progress and soon a small rice farming village came into view, he would seek shelter there tonight and finish his journey tomorrow. It wouldn't be long before the Akatsuki had the six tails sealed.

Naruto stopped briefly to don his sedge hat before walking into the village. Once he entered the village he could tell that it was nothing more than a small outpost town, there was a local bar, probably where he would also have to get lodging, a few stores selling general items such as food, and a meek clothing store was also present, but that was about it. There was probably close to a hundred inhabitants of this town, if that, but a general observation Naruto made as he was walking a through the town was that everyone seemed to be at least content, and a great deal of them seemed to be happy. It was a nice thing to see and it was what Konan, he and the Akatsuki were working toward. Thinking of Konan made him feel alone again, he hated the feeling, it frightened him, he knew it was silly but he had never gone anywhere without her there to guide him. In battle he was comfortable, he had fought many times without her with him, but when it came to traveling, he had never left the rain village without her, he knew in theory what he should do, but when it came to put it to practice he was nervous. At first he walked around for a few hours to get a feel of the village, and to procrastinate. Nervous as he was to be out of the village by himself, he was glad that his first time out on his own was in a low stakes area such as this one. So approaching the bar or restaurant, because it really could be called either, he went in so he could inquire about a place to sleep.

Naruto walked right into the establishment and immediately he noticed that he stuck out like a sore thumb with his Akatsuki cloak and sedge hat, as everyone else seemed to be at least four inches shorter than he was and were wearing dirty field clothing, and where exposing a lot of skin, while all of his clothing was in pristine condition, and the only exposed flesh was when he lifted his hands and the billowing sleeves of his cloak rolled back on his wrists to expose his hands. When he reached the counter he was certain that every set of eyes in the small establishment, fourteen sets in all, were watching him with blatant curiosity.

"C…can.. I help you?" asked the man behind the counter who appeared to be in his late fifties if Naruto had to guess.

In response to the older man's question Naruto swiftly withdrew a bundle of ryo from the inner pockets of his cloak and laid it on the table. "Do you provide lodging?"

Now to a small rice farming community, the amount of ryo that Naruto withdrew from his cloak was probably more than the whole village made in a year, so when Naruto put it down onto the counter of the restaurant owner, as Naruto had confirmed it as a restaurant despite the strong smell of alcohol permeating from it, the amount of currency he was presented with flabbergasted him.

"Ummm uhhhh." Was the intelligent reply of the owner as he tried to overcome his shock at seeing so much money in one place?

"Do you have a place I can spend the night at or should I look elsewhere?" Naruto questioned again he voice somehow becoming even more monotonous as he was willing himself not to grow agitated with the elder restaurant owner.

"I have a storage shed out back, it has a cot in it, and you can stay there if you like." The older man told the Akatsuki pseudo leader as he fished out a key from somewhere under the counter and placing it on the wooden surface of the counter.

Naruto simply picked up the key and walked off, leaving the bundle of ryo atop the counter for the owner. Naruto got to the storage shed and immediately decided to put up a **five seal barrier **around the flimsy shed to ensure his privacy and to avoid any unwanted sneak attacks in the middle of the night. He settled himself in and got out the trail rations that he had brought along with him to eat and began to sedate his hunger. Afterwards he withdrew a map from within his cloak and began to take a look at it. If his calculations where correct it would take about six hours of traveling before he would reach Tsuchigumo village, than he would begin scouting for the six tails. So lying back on the cot that he had bought for the night at a price of about a thousand ryo, He had yet to remove any articles of clothing from his person, instead opting to sleep completely covered in his cloak and sedge hat, so leaning back and closing his eyes he quickly relaxed and drifted asleep.

**Middle of the night**

Naruto was suddenly thrown into consciousness when he sensed a massive spike of demonic chakra. Now a normal ninja, or even a normal sensor wouldn't have sensed the chakra spike, but Naruto being a sensor, and an S class ninja at that was able to sense the spike of tailed beast chakra, quickly realizing that a tailed beast had to be nearby he set out to capture it. So quickly getting out of bed and stuffing the few meager belongings he had brought with him on his trip into the pockets within his cloak he removed the seal, trap combination from the door of the shed and quickly took off toward the chakra signature.

**Rain village**

Konan was currently thinking over the roster of Akatsuki members in an attempt to make a power play, if Kakuzu and Hidan where successful, there would only be one sharingan wielder left alive, three if you counted Kakashi and Danzo, she was trying to figure out how the Akatsuki would split if they went ahead and attacked Tobi now, especially now considering they had proof he wasn't Madara Uchiha. She already knew that Kisame and Zetsu would side with Tobi; she doubted that there was a way to convince them to change their minds either. She knew that Sasori would side with Naruto and herself, along with Hiruko once they gave him the sharingan. Beyond that everyone else was a wild card, but they needed to find a way to kill off Kisame and Zetsu before the schism in the Akatsuki took place, two less S-class ninja in the mix for herself and Pein to deal with would be ideal, perhaps they should send Kisame after the eight tails, he was the most powerful jinchuriki left to be captured if any of them had a chance at killing him it would be the that one.

**With Naruto**

Naruto had arrived on the scene just in time to witness what appeared to be a massive explosion, and to counter the massive explosion the six tails had fully transformed into the tailed beast state to absorb it. It was quite a sight; there were several leaf village shinobi along with the six tails there that got into the scuffle with some men and the six tails transformed. Pein quickly deduced that more observation before action would be needed.

Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram  
**Summoning Jutsu**

With that Naruto quickly summoned a huge chameleon and entered it, once he entered his freshly summoned creature it turned transparent and suppressed both their chakras, making it ideal for infiltration, using it he quickly moved closer to the six tails to discover what was going on.

Once Pein had gotten close enough he noticed that the leaf ninja seemed to be saying farewell to the six tails, that was good it would soon be time to strike, and very soon they both went their separate ways, but there was a problem with his plan to strike the six tails when it was alone, there was a blond girl maybe a few years younger than him and very attractive to his mind, it was unfortunate that he would have to kill her, another problem he was facing was the hunter ninja that where tailing the six tails, they would have to be eliminated as well.

Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram  
**Summoning Jutsu**

Slamming his hands together Pein conjured a powerful dog creature to deal with the hunter ninja that would stand in his way. The dog quickly and savagely moved on the hunter ninja. While his summoned monster did this Pein himself moved onward, know full well that the monster dog would take care of the hunter ninja without his supervision.

He quickly caught up to the unsuspecting jinchuriki and his female companion. His target stopped to talk to the female for a brief second before slowly walking through the forest back toward where Pein had ambushed the hunter ninja. All he would find there now would be bodies, his giant monster dog had dealt with his opposition, so quickly he brought his hands together and flew through more hand seals.

Boar-Dog-Bird-Monkey-Ram  
**Summoning Jutsu**

Only this time instead of some monstrous animal appearing, six other bodies appeared the six paths of Pein. It was time to do battle with the jinchuriki, in reality he knew it was a small chance he would actually need all six bodies to defeat this jinchuriki, there were few things in this world stronger than Orochimaru, but he wanted to end the fight as quickly as possible, and not draw attention to himself. So as the six paths took off and landed gracefully near the six tails as it was just discovering the bloody hunter ninja masks he spoke.

"What happened here." He then turned slightly and noticed the Akatsuki cloaked clad forms to his immediate left. "Are you the one who killed Tsurugi and his men?" he questioned the Akatsuki leader. Pein briefly considered answering the unnecessary question as it was quite obvious that it was he that killed the hunters; instead he opted to speak to the six tail's host.

"Six tails host, the Akatsuki are going to create a new world, an ideal world, for that I need you, or rather the tailed beast sealed within you. Therefore you will be coming with me, be proud you are part of the something great." Pein stated and once the words left his mouth the six tails host turned and fled as quickly as possible.

"Your mine six tails" Pein stated as the Demon realm raised its arm and produced missiles from its wrist.

**Flaming arrow missiles**

The demon realm's projectile jutsu struck true and brought down the fleeing demon host and causing a massive crater in the area he was fleeing toward. Reaching down with the hungry ghost realm he sucked the remaining chakra out of the six tails, rendering it unconscious. Skewering the six tails host with a chakra rod and infecting the jinchuriki's chakra with his own to avoid the tailed beast within it leaking out chakra to oppose him he unceremoniously scooped up the thin frame of the six tails and began the trek back to his home, and his angel.

**Rain village  
Four days later**

A thud resounded through the caverns the Akatsuki where gathered into as the body of the six tailed jinchuriki hit the ground, the gathered Akatsuki where currently holding back to see if they would receive any orders from their leader.

"Kakuzu, Hidan continue your hunt for Itachi, Zetsu will be meeting up with the two of you and you three shall take the Uchiha on together." Pein stated to bounty hunter as the rest of the Akatsuki looked on questioningly the leader spoke again. "Kisame you will be take the eight tails, he is the raikage's younger brother so be careful. Deidera and Tobi how goes your hunt for the seven tails?"

"ohhh Deidera and me are really close I know we can get it soon, cant we Deidera, Deidera?" Tobi questioned informed his leader and questioned his partner all in one breath as Deidera cut the connection with Pein effectively making his projection disappear, no doubt form having heard too much of Tobi's yammering.

"Very well we will reconvene here once another jinchuriki has been captured, or Itachi has been found. Till then you all are dismissed." Pein announced as he cut the connection with the other Akatsuki members.

**Rain village  
elsewhere**

As the Akatsuki where meeting a small frog broke through the guard patrols and swam to the surface, out of the frog emerged a gray haired older man with a powerful aura about him. Jiraiya the toad sage had infiltrated the Hidden rain village.

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A/N: I know Tobi is revealed to be Obitio in cannon, well that is cannon don't sent me a bunch of PM's or make a bunch of reviews asking about how I am going to handle Tobi, just read the story. Also you all probably noticed it has been some time since I posted a chapter, there is a reason for that many people have been sending me anonymous reviews telling me how I should write my story, and I have even gotten a few insulting my religion, needless to say those reviews made me livid, so I have now disabled anonymous reviewing, if I continue getting these lines of reviews I will be taking the story down. I don't mind critical reviews but hateful reviews are another thing it needs to stop.

Read and Enjoy

God Bless.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from the Naruto franchise.

**Rain village: **

Konan was currently standing in the highest room of the tallest tower in the rain village and as she was looking out the open window; having previously removed the thick Akatuski cloak she typically wore and was currently indulging in the cool air on her bare arms and the wind she could feel through her top and on her uncovered belly, chilling the metal piercings in her lip and belly button. She noticed the rain was heavy and steadily pouring down, far down below she could see village security and common folk alike carrying umbrellas or draped in heavy, water sodden cloaks going about their business as though they weren't being drenched by the rain. She remembered those days, the days of slugging through the rain in her childhood with her long dead friends, she didn't miss the conditions, but she longed for the company of the people she was with back then, but as she had noticed Naruto had managed to worm his way into her heart causing the pain of being without her companions to fade, they were each other's companions, they were each other's entire life, she again felt a tinge of regret, having isolated the young man so much in his life, what he could have been had she allowed him to frolic with other children as he grew up. She suddenly felt a presence standing next to her. Naruto she realized, he managed to sneak up on her while she was lost in thought, and certainly in the future she would have to remember to be alert that could have been Tobi.

Looking at Naruto's face she saw a stern look in it, this wasn't Naruto at the moment. "Pein what is it?" she inquired to her friend.

Looking at Konan's face for a minute, taking in the serine expression she so rarely wore, and in that instant Naruto regretted that he had not come up here to be with her, but to deliver news. He so rarely saw that side of Konan, though it had become more frequent as of late. It was still a wondrous sight that not even his gifted eyes could enhance, the person he cared most for in the world being at peace. "Konan someone has segmented my rain, and by the feel of their chakra they are quite powerful." He stated in an even emotionless voice.

"Very well I will use my jutsu to locate the intruder, stop the rain when I am prepared." Konan nodded in acknowledgement and then stated in a feminine yet stoic voice masking the stirrings in her heart, before turning away to recover her robe.

Naruto nodded and looked at her one last time, taking in the softness of her face before she donned her robe and with it her softer side would be lost, catching himself as he pulled his hands upward into his sleeves and as his hands trembled slightly and his heart fluttered like it always did when he was around her. In that moment he would of given anything to embrace her, to hold her, and be with her, to tell her everything in their world was fine and for her to say it back to him, for just a fleeting moment together with her, so everything could be perfect for just a moment in their harsh and trying world. But after a brief internal fight he managed squelched the urge and opened the glass door leading to the balcony so he could stop the rain when she returned with her robe.

**Rain village: Square**

Jiraiya was cautiously walking through the rain village, being careful to disguise himself as he passed many shinobi, obviously security, on his way about the village. Looking around he was greatly confused at the state the village was in as he, like many others across the nations had heard this village was torn in a civil war, this matter certainly required further investigation as it appeared so much of what was know of this village was incorrect. So walking up to a woman's shop he stopped to cozy up to the woman so he could pry for information.

"Greetings ma'am I would like to purchase one of these globes." Jiraiya announced as he went to remove one of the souvenir globes and reached for his wallet.

"That will be 3 ryo." The woman responded and Jiraiya handed her the money, she inspected it for a second then responded.

"Ohh these ryo look different than the ones we typically use, you aren't from around here are you?" she questioned the inconspicuous toad sage.

"No I am not ma'am. You see I am a traveler they recently changed the look of the ryo that's why my bill looks slightly different that yours does, say ma'am what is that?" Jiraiya explained then smoothly changed the subject and pointed at an origami angel hanging at the door of her shop, he had seen many others like it on his way through town.

She gave him an inquisitive look before she responded. "You really are an outsider huh, that there is an icon of our messenger lady angel, she brings the word of God to us common folk of the rain, it's said if you hang an origami angel of her outside your shop that it will bring good fortune." The woman responded.

"God what God do you speak of miss?" Jiraiya questioned unsure if the answer would please him, the hidden rain village's mysteries where beginning to unsettle him he was wondering, and slightly worried that Hanzo had finally lost it and declared himself a divine being.

"Lord Pein, he is God." The woman responded with awe in her voice.

"Pein what happened to Hanzo of the salamander?" Jiraiya blurted out in shock. It was then he noticed his outburst had gotten the attention of every person on that street. Suddenly he was being pulled by the woman he was talking to into the living area behind her stand.

"You shouldn't say that name around here; you could get into much trouble." The woman said to Jiraiya in a hash whisper, with no small amount of fear in her eyes.

"I apologize; I will be on my way now." Jiraiya said and walked out of the small shop through the back entrance to rid himself of unwanted attention. This village seemed like a cult Jiraiya thought, all of them stalwart in their belief in this god they called Pein, to the point of being fanatical about his worship, whoever this Pein was certainly was inspiring to these people, he supposed it was time to dig up information about this 'god'.

**Rain village: with Konan**

Konan had just changed into more shinobi like clothing, donning her cloak and was making her way back to Pein at the top of the tower. Konan did not show it but she silently worried about this intruder, Naruto had said that the intruder was quite powerful, now there where many powerful ninja, but Naruto had only had real exposure to other S rank ninja, and if he thought this person was powerful then they might be able to harm Naruto, she would never allow that to happen her hands tightening into firm fists her nails digging slightly into her soft palms, Naruto meant to much to her plan, to the village, to the hope of peace across the shinobi world, to her, yes he meant far too much to her to ever allow harm to come to him. This foe would fall to them. Steeling her resolve as a fiery protective feeling made itself know to her once again in her heart, as it did every time someone threatened Naruto. Konan reached the balcony and prepared herself for a formidable foe.

"Stop the rain" Konan said smoothly as she began to break into slips of paper and reform into thousands of paper butterflies Naruto raising his hands smothered out the rain and Konan then floated off into the village to find the intruder.

**Rain village: with Jiraiya **

Jiraiya had just finished his interrogation of the pair of rain shinobi he had just caught; it was rather pathetic that two ninja got ambushed because they snuck away from their posts to get a drink, but if it weren't for idiots and fools in the world, then the ninja wouldn't exist. He currently had one of the genin bound in his **toad subjugation **and he was making his way to the tower that the genin he had just interrogated said this Pein person lived. Jiraiya jumped off prepared to confront this Pein person never noticing the origami butterflies floating around behind him.

**Rain village: Konan and Naruto**

Standing next to Naruto on the ledge overlooking the rain village was the animal path of pain, he brought it out ready to hunt down and kill whoever this intruder may be, and if he needed assistance in the fight he could always summon the other paths right to him. Konan's paper slowly floated back together and reformed the blue hairs mistress of the rain village, appearing with a slightly solemn look on her stoically feminine features. Naruto immediately knew something was wrong, even though any other shinobi would have seen no change in her demeanor.

"Konan what is it?" Naruto questioned, trying to keep his face blank and not let the concerned emotion show through.

Konan looked at Naruto, locking her eyes with the rinnegan that made him Pein, holding his gaze for a brief moment, and only breaking contact when she felt the warmth that always appeared in her eyes as it was begin to appear, now was not the time for such feelings. Steeling her resolve as she looking past the animal path of Pein and to Naruto she spoke. "It's Jiraiya." Konan announced.

"The famed Jiraiya of the Sannin is here? This enemy will be quite the challenge." Naruto said already preparing himself mentally for battle.

"Naruto during this battle you will call Jiraiya, Jiraiya sensei." Konan announced.

"I don't understand." Naruto questioned the beautiful woman in front of him.

All at once Konan stepped forward and spoke in a soft voice with emotion pushing powerfully to get to the surface, but she held it back, there was no room for intimacy at the current time. She reached up and cupped both of Naruto's cheeks as he stood unflinching before her, she then raised her thumbs up, and as he closed his eyes she placed the pads of her thumbs gently atop his eye lids and slowly moved back and forth over them. Then she spoke in a soft voice, the same one she always used when trying to coax him into doing something.

"Jiraiya has seen these eyes before, with Nagato, he trained Nagato. So if you call him Jiraiya sensei then he will assume you are Nagato and your real self will be safe." Konan spoke and then separated from Naruto before her emotions for the young man could surface completely. Turning her back to get her raging emotional side in control, she began to give more instructions.

"I will go on ahead, catch up with me quickly." Konan said and without waiting for a response went after her former master.

**Dance of the shikigami**

And just like that Konan separated into thousands of sheets of paper again all with one destination, Jiraiya of the Sannin.

**Rain village tower entrance: Jiraiya**

Jiraiya found his jutsu extremely helpful in infiltrating the tower; and as he had entered the lobby he then began to notice a distinct lack of security, which continued up until an incredible amount of paper appeared, which than began to flutter into the tower and attach itself to the genin Jiraiya was using to infiltrate the tower. In seconds the man was completely covered in the strong chakra infused paper and appeared before him was….. Konan! His former student, she quickly formed a spear of paper in her right hand and lashed out at the man he was using as cover, thinking fast Jiraiya released his jutsu and attacked.

**Fire style: giant flame bomb**

Unleashing his jutsu toward Konan she quickly dodged the attack and reformed herself hovering in mid air.

"I was using him as bait to draw out this Pein person, don't tell me you're him. Though I must say you have honed your jutsu well, and you've become quite a catch Konan, I had heard that the three of you had died but I suppose that was just a rumor" Konan's face was blank, but Jiraiya wasn't far from the truth, she was in a way Pein so she went with a routine that wouldn't confirm or deny anything.

"What do you expect to gain by appearing before us after all these years?" she questioned her former sensei.

"It wasn't my intention, I came here to face the leader of the Akatsuki, I never knew you were in that organization, otherwise our paths would not have crossed. What happened to you, you had such a love for origami and you where the kindest of the three, for you to attack me without as much as a greeting. Tell me how on earth did you get mixed up in the Akatsuki. The things the Akatsuki are doing, their goals, they aren't right, and you know that Konan you always had a strong sense of right and wrong, the Akatsuki and their intentions are evil." Jiraiya called out in a demanding voice hoping against hope that he could save this student unlike the others.

"You you're the messenger Lady Angel, this man he's an intruder you must kill him." The genin Jiraiya used to get in called out then promptly ran away.

"Oh so you're an angel now, that means you're the messenger for this so called God, I guess that means one of the other two is Pein so which one is it Yahiko or Nagato?" Jiraiya questioned Konan.

"Enough I have received me orders from God I will kill you." Konan announced with a slightly colder edge to her stoic voice and formed her paper wings.

"Tell me does this form make you feel more like an angel?" Jiraiya asked his voice full of mirth.

Konan's response was to angle her wings at Jiraiya and fire paper knives at him at full force. Jiraiya then unleashed another fire ball expecting to rid himself of the paper assault, but he didn't expect the drastic increase in power Konan had undergone since he last saw her he supposed twenty years really made a difference, her paper matched the fire, she held him in a stalemate long enough for him to run out of air to fuel the fire and forcing him to dodge or be sliced to ribbons by her knives. Jiraiya rolled to the side and unleashed a string of oil that came spewing from his mouth then clutched his hands together, **Toad oil bomb **, **Art of the raging lion's mane **, and then unleashed a hair jutsu effectively ensnaring Konan.

"You're soaked in oil so you can't peel apart. So what happened to the others, Nagato and Yahiko, I heard you all died but I guess that was a rumor? Konan help yourself here I don't want it to come to something like this."

"Back then you should have done what Orochimaru suggested, isn't that what you are thinking now?" Konan questioned not the slightest change in her after being caught, Pein would be there soon, Naruto would protect her. Then she began speaking again to stall for time. "But instead you spared us from that fate, though now it is too late we have whole heartily embraced his ideology and now we are making our move.

Jiraiya's face twisted into disgust, almost as if he was scolding his children. "I never had any regrets about letting the three of you live and don't you dare accuse me of such actions again!" Jiraiya exclaimed full of rage, before his voice took on a softer more reminiscing tone. "I taught you ninjutsu to enable you all to survive those harsh years, all three of you were loved ones of mine and I did what was right, even knowing now what has happened I still have no regrets and would have done it all the same. For a few years after I left I started hearing your names pop up on occasion it seems you made quite a name for yourselves as mercenaries, then."

Konan cut him off nearly letting the rage in her boil to the surface but kept her composure. "You have no idea what happened to us after you left sensei." Konan announced in her typically flat soft tone.

"No I don't, that seems to be quite apparent, but why all this stuff with the Akatsuki, what the Akatsuki is doing is simply wrong."

"An interesting but incorrect mindset Jiraiya..Sensei." Which came a far more masculine voice that managed to break Jiraiya's concentration from above and to the right or Jiraiya, Jiraiya then looked up and gasped once he locked eyes with this new foe, he had discovered who Pein was.

"Well you appearance certainly has changed quite a bit, but those eyes, so you're the one who became Pein, NAGATO! What happened to you" Jiraiya announced.

"You don't need to know after all you are an outsider." The animal path of Pein stated.

"You truly have fallen. Nagato." Jiraiya stated in a solemn voice also putting emphasis on Nagato's name in hopes of coaxing something out of him.

A loud clap resonated throughout the room's entry way, and looking upward to see Pein's hands clasped together as he was channeling chakra Jiraiya knew what technique he was using.  
**Summoning jutsu**

The creature that was summoned as the result of Pein's jutsu appeared to be a giant crab like monster that then proceeded to spray a foamy liquid down on the two shinobi standing in the center. Jiraiya leapt backwards avoiding the spray, but it quickly engulfed Konan, Jiraiya immediately knew that Nagato was attempting to wash away the oil that had ensnared her. Konan emerged from the foam bath and proceeded to float herself toward the top of the room. It was then he noticed a quick glance between the one called Pein and Konan, and he saw Pein's lips part and a quick shave of the head barely visible was Konan's response, he was about to come under attack by whatever plan they had concocted.

Naruto for his part almost called out to Konan to assure himself she was okay, but he quickly picked up on the slight head movements on Konan's part indicating that he should remain silent and that he did as he motioned forward and sent the crab monster to attack Jiraiya.

Snake  
**Art of the raging lion's mane**

Jiraiya's white mane of hair leaped into action and wrapped itself around the monstrous crab that Pein had summoned and proceeded to tear it apart, than quickly his hair than made a beeline for Pein as hands flew into motion.

**Paper shuriken **

Jiraiya leaped away just as several razors formed of slips of paper were sent flying his way, and as Jiraiya dodged, the motion for his avoidance maneuver propelling him out of the way of Konan's razor sharp paper also set his hair attack off course and allowed Pein to leap to the safety of a higher area in the room.

Jiraiya's mind was racing, he was going to have to fight the ever formidable Pein and his rinnegan, while having to avoid Konan's paper strikes, the odds were not in his favor, though thankfully he had an equalizer.

**Summoning jutsu**

Jiraiya's mind snapped back, glancing upward the one called Pein was standing atop a giant dog like creature with two heads, fortunately Jiraiya himself was not without the power necessary to fight on this level. So taking a great leap upward Jiraiya went through hand signs as he was propelled toward Pein, allowing his lips to curl into a smirk.

**Summoning jutsu**

"These tears of blood overflowing with pain I have gone from Sannin to Sage, the hermit sage of mount Myoboku I am master Ji….!" he shouted as he danced atop the head of a giant toad he had just summoned. But before he could finish his dance he stumbled and fell forward, as the toad he had summoned took a great leap as two spears of paper skewered the ground where the toad had previously stood.

"Still playing the fool I see sensei." Konan's voice cut through the hostile air, and if Jiraiya didn't know better he would swear she was mocking him.

"Mr. Gamaken we cannot play this one by ear, our foe posses a grave threat, the eyes of the sage of six paths, I need you to buy me some time so that I may summon the two great sages."Jiraiya announced as he bite his thumbs, creating a bloody glyph on his face before he slammed his hands together and began to focus his chakra. As soon as Jiraiya's hands where clasped together the giant dog like creature rushed to attack, Gamaken leapt upward and thrusting his pronged staff out intercepted the blow of the creature pinning it to the wall, before making a tactical retreat when paper skewers filled the air where his body had previously been, escaping Konan's assault had been a costly move for the giant frog and his sage, as the maneuver cost them their line of sight on the rinnegan user Pein.

Konan observed as the toad giant avoided her strike, though she never believed it would harm a shinobi of such level, the toad did move away in an angle as to provide Naruto a chance to avoid detection and slip away into the intricate pipe system to strike at her former sensei, no not Naruto, in this moment he was Pein, he was the God of the rain village, not her closest and most trusted companion. As she pulled herself from her possibly lethal wondering thoughts she began forming her paper wings again, the monstrous three headed dog that Pein had summoned earlier split itself apart and altered its bones to stand up, it really was a horrid creature but it did have a way of shifting the odds, and as three monstrous dogs bore down on the summoned toad and toad sage she was certain the odds had shifted.

As the three giant dogs leaped toward Gamaken and began to bite nip, growl, and pounce on him, he quickly maneuvered himself into a corner and began to swing his shield and double pronged staff with ferocity, bludgeoning the dog like creatures as they attacked him, blood flew as the blows continued. Gamaken managed to beat one of the animals to death, just to see the killing blow actually split the creature in twine and in the processes duplicating the animal. As Gamaken backing into a corner funneling the dog monsters in to face them one at a time he suddenly had to leap away as Jiraiya called out a warning, two paper spears embedded the ground where they had just been, no doubt a killing blow had it struck them.

"Mr. Gamaken we need to leave this area, Konan's assault coupled with those animals in an enclosed space such as this and we will be overwhelmed."

Right, will…look for …. An open spot…" Gamaken gasped out between breaths as the area around the toad sage and toad summon became consumed with smoke as the two made their temporary escape.

Pein as he was watching through the eyes of the powerful rinnegan as the former sensei of his predecessor made his escape, he signaled for the dog monsters to give chase before appearing on the tongue of a chameleon creature. "Konan when we go out there make sure to stay away from Jiraiya, it will be risky fighting in an open area with them I don't want you to come to harm." The rinnegan user droned out in a flat monotone.

Konan's eyes widened as she listened to her companion, this was no longer Pein, it was Naruto, and a very soft side of Naruto at that, steeling herself as her heart soared for the concern he had for her she nodded her conformation and rose out of the shaft they had been doing combat in as Pein retreated back into his illusionary creature fading from sight as he followed.

Jiraiya looked around from their perch atop a tower the area below was wide open and would provide adequate room to maneuver away from attacks by Konan while also provide enough cover as to not engage in three hundred sixty degree combat with those dogs, and as those dogs broke into view, eight in total now, Jiraiya focused all his concentration toward his efforts in calling forth the two great toad sages.

As Jiraiya intensified his focus the dog monsters Pein summoned jumped toward the frog Jiraiya was perched atop quickly bearing down upon them and as the gap between them became small it than began a ferocious battle between the two animals, as the blood flew and the staff of the giant frog twirled once again multiplying his foes, Konan appeared on the horizon this time with her paper wings as she began spinning her wings hurling paper blades down on the toad as well as the dogs splitting them and multiplying them forcing Gamaken to retreat once more.

As the toad moved throughout the pipe systems Jiraiya's hands took on a light blue glow indicating his chakra was reaching a massive build up. As he spun around and noticed the dogs were closing in he then told Gamaken to return to mount Myoboku as he slammed his hands onto the ground as the dogs were closing in, a massive plume of smoke appeared and in the next instant the dogs where sent wheeling backward as Jiraiya leaped from the cloud. As Konan and Pein where racing to the last location of Jiraiya relayed by the dogs, the animal path of Pein's head suddenly jerked up.

"Interesting, he managed to kill the dogs." He announced to Konan as they neared Jiraiya.

"We must be careful engaging Jiraiya in combat, he is a formidable foe." Konan stated as they neared the location, only to be forced to alter their course as the hallway they were traveling down filled with needle like projectiles. Pein's hands came in motion as it began to make hand signs.

**Sage art: Kebari senbon**

**Summoning jutsu**

A plume of smoke announced the arrival of a rock like panda that plugged the tunnel and was then harried with the hair needles Jiraiya had launched toward the two Akatsuki members. Paper fluttered around Konan and as Pein made a hand sign to dismiss the summoned creature shielding both himself and his angel, Konan threw her arms forward.

**Paper shurikens**

The paper blades flew providing Konan and Pein adequate cover to enter the room where Jiraiya had dispatched the dogs, as Konan floated upward to give herself a better trajectory in which to fire, The animal path of Pein extended its arm downward and produced a chakra disrupter blade and as it closed in on Jiraiya it lashed out with the blade only for his wrist to be caught by Jiraiya and to receive a kick square center mass wrenching him from Jiraiya's grip and sending him backward bouncing on the ground twice before slamming into the wall.

Konan watched from her aerial view as Pein was sent flying with a single kick from Jiraiya, no normal shinobi should have been able to do that, the paths of Pein had amazing reflexes and reaction time, atop of that amazing durability to physical attacks. It was then upon closer inspection she noticed two frogs on Jiraiya sensei's shoulders.

The animal path of Pein slowly recovered from the powerful blow dealt to it by the sage Jiraiya, and promptly flipped backward onto the wall slightly below and to the left of where Konan was currently hovering. As his gifted eyes scanned over Jiraiya he noticed something was amiss, Jiraiya himself seemed to have undergone a transformation, and judging by the blow he was dealt, his foe was now faster stronger and tougher. As if Jiraiya wasn't a formidable foe before, his transformed state would require more power to defeat, and it was with those thoughts that he started making hand sighs.

Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram  
**Summoning jutsu**

Kicking up smoke again as two bodies appeared next to the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm and finally the human realm. All three bodies turned to face Jiraiya of the Sannin. An uneasy silence fell over the combatants as they began to size each other up, with Jiraiya talking in a hushed voice to the two recently summoned toads on his shoulders. Konan began to float higher upward nearly retching the ceiling of the pipe filled room that was about to be home to a clash of S rank warriors.

Pein waited biding his time until Jiraiya became engrossed in an argument between the two toads and himself before all three realms produced the strange black chakra blades from the folds of their cloaks and charged forward prepared to strike at Jiraiya. Lashing forward with three disrupter blades as Jiraiya shifted into his toad combat delivering a sound punch toward one of the paths blind spot only for it to effortlessly rotate it's arm and catch the blow in its hand, leaving Jiraiya dumbfounded. But the toad sage quickly recovered as another blow aimed at his side brought him back into the battle as he leaped away from the blow retreating up unto the wall. He gazed down at the three realms of Pein, he knew with the way they entered into combat with him he was at a distinct disadvantage. Then Ma had a plan.

As each of the three sages clasped their hands into the tiger or ram seal and took deep breathes in. Pein upon seeing this began to move the hungry ghost realm moved in front of the other two paths in preparation to absorb the ninjutsu Jiraiya was about to unleash.

**Sage art: bath of boiling oil.**

The hungry ghost realm quickly intercepted the attack as steam began to rise from the floor of the room obscuring the vision of all combatants and as the mist settled Jiraiya of the Sannin stood dumbfounded as the battlefield was revealed to not be covered in oil, but untouched by the scalding heat that should have marred it and his opponents who should have been boiled were standing there silently staring up at him perfectly intact and not the burn mess of flesh he anticipated. Suddenly Jiraiya was spurred into motion to avoid the blade like paper Konan suddenly flung at him from her place mid air in the room, Jiraiya was not quick enough to avoid one knife which tore through his clothing covering his left leg, but when it came to the sage enhanced flesh was unable to penetrate his body, leaving the calve seemingly untouched by the blade. So Konan's paper weapons couldn't penetrate his skin while it was enhanced with the sage chakra that would certainly be a boon to him in this situation. As Konan threw more knives at him Jiraiya leapt from his hold along the wall and sent himself flying toward the realms of Pein lashing out wickedly as he charged.

**Sage art: Giant Rasengan**

The hungry ghost realm moved just as quickly as the sage mode Jiraiya to intercept the attack reaching his hands up to absorb the chakra, being pushed back slightly by the sheer amount before it was absorbed into the realms body. And as the last of the chakra was absorbed into the body of the hungry ghost realm, the human and animal realms both surrounded the sage and struck with their chakra blades aiming for the vital points of the sage. Jiraiya twisted and turned and managed to avoid them just in time before leaping back and staring down his opponents. Just then paper fluttered down from the roof of the room they were doing combat in and begin to attempt to stick to him, as Jiraiya was weaving through the paper slips Konan was attempting to smother him with the paths of Pein entered the fray, lashing and striking at him with their limbs and unusual weapons only complicated the matter as he attempted to weave out of the path of the strikes and Konan's paper.Just then the sounds of croaking frogs broke the heavy air of combat, Pein and Konan's eyes both were widened as they began to feel a genjutsu take effect, Pein made a seal attempting to break it, but it was futile.

"Konan fall back." Pein announced in a smooth even voice regardless of the distress he felt at the genjutsu as he pressed his attack on Jiraiya attempting to stop the illusionary attack. Lashing out with the chakra blades and Jiraiya skillfully weaved in and out of attacks exchanging blows with the paths of Pein.

**With Konan**

Konan had quickly fled when Pein had ordered her back, she neared the top of the tower to the room Naruto was in, the sound of the frogs was no longer present, hoping she was out of range of the genjutsu before she was trapped into it, she flung the door Naruto was in open and quickly turned to shut it and cover it in her paper. As she turned around she noticed Naruto was standing stock still and was not moving, she moved over to him to check on him, he was breathing normally, but he had not acknowledged her, concerning her greatly until he rasped out.

"Konan….." was the barely audible gasp that parted Naruto's lips. Konan was quickly at her partner's side and when she heard him gasp out she realized he was caught in Jiraiya's jutsu, it bound him completely and not just his three bodies his entire psyche, what a powerful technique, as she pressed two fingers upon either side of his temples and channeled her chakra through them in an attempt to break the jutsu.

**With Naruto and Jiraiya **

Jiraiya had just skewered two of the rinnegan user's bodies with the stone swords when suddenly his shoulder was pierced with one of the strange black blades his opponents had been using.

"That's not possible" Ma and Pa both hollered as one as Jiraiya leapt away from the attack, his footing slightly off causing him to slip and clutch at his shoulder that was currently bleeding and had a black spike, no doubt part of the blade lodged in it.

"Those frogs are a nuisance." The Animal path of Pein announced as he withdrew another chakra blade and pointed it forward, suddenly it extended rapidly and in the next instant a squelch was heard as the blade skewered Pa the male toad elder. And as the other toad elder cried out tears spilling from her face as her love was lost, Pein jerked his arm bisecting the frog and began to rush forward Jiraiya leaping away as he finally got a handle on his sporadic chakra.

Seeing Jiraiya leap away the animal path of Pein flew through hand signs as he slammed his hands together, as the puffs of smoke cleared revealing the three remaining paths of Pein to aid the animal path. And as three paths rushed forward to engage Jiraiya in combat the hell realm moved to revive the two downed paths. An explosion rocked the foundation of the tower as the wall collapsed, water spilling everywhere as the six paths of Pein cornered the injured toad sage. It was then that Jiraiya recognized one of his former students among the Pein realms.

"Yahiko?" he questioned and came to a dead stop, but Pein felt no remorse or attachment to this man and did not feel the need to stop and catch up as Konan had, and as the blades pierced the flesh of the toad sage striking him to the ground and slaughtering the remaining toad perched upon his shoulder Pein felt nothing.

**Konan**

Konan arrived at the battle field just as Pein finished off Jiraiya and his toad companion watching her former master be struck down by her closest friend nearly brought tears to her eyes. But she managed to strengthen her resolve as she looked down upon the combatants. "Take him with us." She ordered down to Pein. "He will be enshrined with Nagato, it's the least we can do for him." She announced as she turned to walk off, Pein gathered the body of the slain toad sage, and quietly made his way toward the shrine with Jiraiya. And as they arrived at the shrine that held the body of the former God of the rain village, Naruto had followed to join her, laying the body of her former sensei among the origami flower that cradled the body of her former friend. The one Naruto had replaced, and the body of the toad sage her former mentor who Naruto had just struck down, she took a look at Naruto, his red hair, his youthful, handsome face always so stern and cold, his eyes calculating and cruel to all but her she could refrain no longer, hot tears began to flow down her face and as she fell to her knees and felt arms wrap around her she reached forward clinging to Naruto holding the fabric of his cloak in her hand and she pressed her face into his chest relishing in the comforting warm embrace of her friend, he was always warm, and that night Konan cried, she cried for the lives of her friends, ones that were taken far too early, she cried for her mentor whom her creation had stuck down without a second thought, and most importantly she cried, for what Naruto had become, for what she had made him into, an unfeeling monster, no he certainly wasn't that the emotions he always tried to push down when he saw her, though having never mentioning it had remained the same since he was younger, the affection he held, he was no monster she thought as she pressed closer into his embrace hearing his heart beat in her ear, feeling the warmth of his body, the protective way his arms were placed around her body, and in that moment she realized she truly loved him, this young boy whom she had raised from childhood was the one she loved and cherished most, and in that fit of tears and sorrow Konan spoke.

"I love you."

A/N: Jiraiya is gone, I didn't focus on the fight to much as I don't like combat scenes instead I focused more on Konan and Naruto's development and plot, as combat in writing has always bored me. I didn't like killing Jiraiya as he is one of my favorite characters, but it had to be done. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and as always.

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GOD BLESS!


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